Joe Biden has made at least 148 gaffes and public blunders so far this year, which White House communications staff have had to fix for official transcripts.
The 81-year-old president has stumbled in 118 statements, speeches or comments made between January 1 and April 24 – meaning that there were more errors to correct than those made in official announcements.
According to a review of official White House records conducted by the Daily Caller, communications personnel had to make the edits in order to align Biden’s words with his public policy stances.
In some cases, staff had to alter his statements entirely to convey the exact opposite of what Biden actually said.
White House staff have had to correct Biden's public remarks at least 148 times this year so far
ReutersBiden, who frequently misspeaks and makes blunders in public, has referred to himself as a “gaffe machine”.
In his latest error, the 81-year-old forgot the date infamous Capitol riots whilst speaking at a glitzy fundraiser hosted by Hollywood stars Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones at their Westchester home.
The 46th president, who will turn 86 if he sees out a second term in the White House, was attempting to rip into his Republican rival Donald Trump.
He said: “We’ll certainly never forget the dark days of June 6, January 6, excuse me.”
GAFFES GALORE:
June 6 commemorates the Allied invasion of Normandy during the Second World War, where more than 2,500 American soldiers were killed.
The day prior, Biden was speaking at a trade union event in Washington when he read out a prompt to “pause” from a teleprompter.
Addressing a crowd of several hundred people, Biden listed his achievements in office, before saying: “Imagine what we could do next. Four more years.”
He then added: “Pause.” The break is believed to have been added by his aides in hopes that the brief silence would allow the crowd to chant “four more years” back at him.
Joe Biden struggled with the autocue in a recent gaffe
GettyThe President then appeared to laugh off the blunder as the room erupted in chants of “four more years”.
The latest series of blunders comes as 86 per cent of American voters believe Biden is too old to sit in the Oval Office amid concerns over his cognitive state.
Biden, who will turn 86 by the end of a potential second term, has made a series of errors but the White House has tried to play them down.
The 81-year-old was forced to step in after special counsel Robert Hur's report that highlighted the president's “significantly limited” memory over a probe into the 46th President’s classified documents.
“My memory is fine,” he insisted in a White House briefing. Biden gave an emotional response to a claim he could not recollect when his son died, saying: “How the hell dare he raise that?”
Questions about Biden’s age and competency also appear to have boosted Donald Trump’s chances of returning to the White House.
RealClearPolitics has given Trump an average lead of around 2.5 per cent.
