Tipsheet

Is This Really How Biden Is Going to Handle That ‘Vice President Trump’ Gaffe?

President Joe Biden held his “big boy” press conference on Thursday night, in which he started quite late, engaged in mumbling and stumbling, and, answered the very first preselected question by referencing “Vice President Trump.” Not only were the memes and reactions something else, but Biden’s reaction was a bit curious.

Former and potentially future President Donald Trump chimed in, understandably so, given that he was inadvertently referenced in such a way, and throughout the press briefing.

Biden’s political X account took a screenshot of such a post to clap back at it. 

Trump had mocked the concept of a “‘Big Boy’ Press Conference,” and noting such a response came as part of an answer to his very first question. “Great job, Joe!,” Trump added.

Biden’s account responded by claiming “By the way: Yes, I know the difference,” despite how the president didn’t do so on Thursday night, didn’t seem to notice, and also didn’t even bother to correct himself in the moment. 

The post also offered “[o]ne’s a prosecutor, and the other’s a felon,” which isn’t exactly what’s at the heart of Biden’s memorable gaffe so early on during the briefing.

Such a response does speak to the weaponization and politicization of the justice system against Biden’s political opponents, including and especially Trump.

Leaning into such a major gaffe that the president himself didn’t notice, through a post he himself very likely didn’t make, is certainly an odd way to handle the gaffe.

Biden may not have noticed his gaffe, but members of his administration there for the press briefing certainly did, as Leah covered earlier on Friday.

In the approximately 14 hours since the post has been up, there have been over 16,000 replies and over 3,000 quoted reposts taking issue with the post.

Doug P at our sister site of Twitchy highlighted some of the best reactions to that post from the president’s account. 

Such memorable gaffes so early on in a make-or-break press briefing also don’t help the narrative that Biden is not too old to serve another term or mentally sharp enough. Poll after poll shows that a majority of Americans, including Biden’s fellow Democrats, have such concerns about the president's age and mental acuity.

Biden also referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as Russia’s “President Putin” earlier on Thursday.