The White House communications shop has mostly had it easy with President Joe Biden’s penchant for generating unwanted headlines with his loose lips in unscripted moments. But that could soon change.
As the COVID-19 pandemic abates and masking and social distancing precautions ease, Biden left the safe confines of the White House twice this week, with mixed results.
BIDEN PLAN TO EXPAND WELFARE AS WE KNOW IT HAMPERED BY REPUBLICAN RESISTANCE
Democrats are not concerned by the headaches Biden’s reemergence will likely cause his staff as he enters his second 100 days in office, according to Eric Schultz, one of former President Barack Obama’s White House spokespeople.
“No, these are the same picayune episodes the reporters cared about during the election that the American people paid zero attention to,” Schultz told the Washington Examiner.
But Rutgers University history and journalism professor David Greenberg agreed an uptick in Biden’s public appearances increased the likelihood of more verbal missteps and fumbles.
Critics contend Biden’s cringeworthy quips, interactions, and exchanges provide fodder for Republicans gearing up for the 2022 midterm elections cycle and undermine his authority with foreign leaders, particularly given the prospect of a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in June. Greenberg, though, has doubts they would cause permanent public relations damage.
“Biden’s gaffes are more endearing than anything else. They’re already baked in. The public sees him as a benevolent, grandfatherly figure, as they saw [Dwight] Eisenhower,” he said of the 34th president.
Eisenhower, a revered military commander, could not utter a coherent sentence, according to Greenberg. People poked fun of him for it, but it was not a major political liability when he contested the Republican presidential nomination in 1952, nor for his two terms in the White House.
“[Ronald] Reagan also was continually making gaffes. He welcomed ‘Sugar Ray and Mrs. Ray’ to the White House [when] it was Sugar Ray Leonard and his wife. He referred to Samuel Doe of Liberia as ‘Chairman Moe.’ He praised the people of Bolivia upon his arrival in Brazil,” Greenberg said of the 40th president and former actor. “Some liberals had a ball, but it did not make a real difference in people’s perceptions.”
Biden has been relatively cocooned from the press amid the pandemic. He spent much of his campaign at home in Delaware, and his administration has limited the number of people permitted on White House grounds since the inauguration. Events on the executive campus and excursions have been low-key, highly controlled, and tightly managed.
Costas Panagopoulos, Northeastern University political science chairman, added both the White House and public have been preoccupied with the pandemic, taking the sting out of Republican attacks over Biden’s verbal struggles.
“Extemporaneous remarks by presidents always carry some risk of misstatement. Who can forget George W. Bush’s many gaffes? But it is wise to take innocent statements made in jest with a grain of salt,” he said. “Sense of humor varies greatly among presidents.”
Donning aviator sunglasses, though still buttoned up in a suit, Biden was visibly more relaxed this week as he oscillated between his teleprompter-fed remarks and off-the-cuff comments at Michigan’s Ford Rouge Electric Vehicle Center and the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in Connecticut.
Seemingly invigorated by larger audiences than the smaller groups of people with whom he has spoken since his swearing-in ceremony, Biden’s general congeniality gave way to awkward ad-libbed statements, especially during his Coast Guard commencement speech. Many of his prior appearances have been made-for-TV moments delivered straight to camera, including his address to a joint session of Congress.
“You are a really dull class. C’mon man. Is a sun gettin’ to you?” he said after his joke about the Navy flat-lined.
A day earlier, he made what was perceived as an off-color joke to a reporter hoping to ask him about Israel before he test-drove Ford’s new F-150 Lightning electric truck. He was in Dearborn, Michigan, to promote his $174 billion proposal for the electric vehicle market as part of his $2.25 trillion infrastructure-plus spending package.
“No, you can’t. Not unless you get in front of the car as I step on it,” he said. “I’m only teasing.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Despite the restricted access, Biden has still verbally slipped up.
During a virtual tour of a COVID-19 vaccination site near Phoenix, Arizona, in March, Biden asked head nurse Brittney Hayes whether she was a student. Hayes had just told Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris she was affiliated with Arizona State University but that she was in charge of the State Farm Stadium-based vaccination facility.
“Are you a freshman at the university?” Biden asked, laughing.
“No. No. No,” Hayes said.
“You look like a freshman,” Biden responded.
“Why, thank you,” Hayes replied.
