President Joe Biden has notched his fair share of awkward encounters with the press since moving into the White House.
Some of the exchanges stem from Biden-isms, distinct verbal quirks of a president with a history of making missteps when a TV camera or microphone is within earshot. But others have come off as, at times, borderline inappropriate, typically downplayed by Biden as jokes.
Yet for Eric Schultz, one of former President Barack Obama’s White House spokespeople, “with Joe Biden, what you see is what you get.”
“His authenticity, no matter the audience, has always been his calling card. It’s why he was elected president, and it’s why he’s a beloved American figure,” Schultz said. “The country elected him president of the United States, not comedian in chief.”
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Here are a handful of examples of when things got just plain weird:
‘Get in front of the car as I step on it’
Biden avoided reporter questions in Michigan this week while test-driving Ford’s new F-150 Lightning electric truck in Dearborn.
A reporter inquired whether she could ask Biden about Israel after almost two weeks of deadly clashes between the Israeli government and Palestinian militants, prompted by more Jerusalem evictions.
“No, you can’t. Not unless you get in front of the car as I step on it,” he quipped. “I’m only teasing.”
‘Because I’m worried about you’
Biden deflected a reporter’s line of inquiry this month regarding why he continued wearing a mask inside, despite him and many of the people with whom he comes into contact being vaccinated against COVID-19.
“Because I’m worried about you,” Biden replied. “No, that’s a joke. It’s a joke.”
He went on: “Why am I wearing the mask? Because when we’re inside, it’s still good policy to wear the mask. That’s why.”
‘Gimme a break, man’
Biden deployed a 2020 campaign response to a reporter who needled him over whether his goal of administering 100 million COVID-19 vaccine shots during his first 100 days in office was ambitious enough to curb the pandemic.
“When I announced it, you all said it wasn’t possible,” Biden said during his first week in his new job. “Come on, gimme a break, man.”
Biden revised his target before the 100th day of his presidency to 200 million doses after meeting his 100 million benchmark on his 58th. Approximately 220 million shots were given by his 100th day.
‘You’re a one-horse pony’
During transition, Biden could not contain his frustration with frequent foil Peter Doocy when the Fox News reporter grilled him on whether he still believed negative press about his son Hunter was “Russian disinformation” and “a smear campaign.”
“Yes, yes, yes. God, love you, man — you’re a one-horse pony, I tell you,” Biden retorted.
On the campaign trail, Biden also called Doocy “classy” after he asked for the then-candidate’s thoughts on becoming a grandfather again. A paternity test had revealed Hunter as the father of a daughter born in 2018 to an Arkansas woman named Lunden Roberts.
“No. That’s a private matter. You’re a good man. You’re a good man. Classy,” Biden said.
Biden similarly referred to a voter during the Democratic 2020 primary as “a lying, dog-faced pony soldier.” Months before, he had accused another voter of being “a damn liar” for broaching Hunter’s business dealings with Ukrainian oligarchy-linked energy company, Burisma Holdings.
“It was a joke,” campaign spokeswoman Symone Sanders claimed of the “lying, dog-faced pony soldier” line. “Many people in the room laughed. And it was a line he has actually used frequently, which is from a John Wayne movie.”
‘Are you a junkie?’
Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Biden snapped at a black radio host for bringing up whether the then-77-year-old should submit to a cognitive test given he would be the oldest president inaugurated if he won the election. Former President Donald Trump had bragged about scoring 30 out of 30 on a cognitive test during his last physical.
“That’s like saying you, before you got in this program, ‘Will you take a test, were you taking cocaine or not?’ What do you think, huh? Are you a junkie?” he told a combined convention of the National Association of Black Journalists and National Association of Hispanic Journalists.
Earlier last year, Biden lost his temper, too, with CBS reporter Ed O’Keefe concerning an opinion piece written by a supporter of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, then a primary rival. The column described Biden as having “perfected the art of taking big contributions, then representing his corporate donors at the cost of middle- and working-class Americans.”
“Yesterday, you said you accepted Bernie’s apology. Now, you’re attacking him,” O’Keefe said. “Why are you doing that? Why wasn’t his apology enough, Mr. Vice President? Why attack Sanders?”
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“Why, why, why, why, why, why, why?” Biden countered. “You’re getting nervous, man. Calm down, it’s OK. He apologized for saying that I was corrupt. He didn’t say anything about whether or not I was telling the truth about Social Security.”
