There seems to be no end in sight for the mind-boggling gaffes and age-related blunders of US President Joe Biden as the octogenarian head of state drops yet another clanger while bragging about a self-concocted analogy between the United States and the rest of the countries around the world.
The very latest installment in the recurring series of Biden attempting to deliver an unrehearsed speech hit a snag on Wednesday when he was speaking near the Clay Wade Bailey Bridge on the Ohio River to highlight his proclaimed success in passing infrastructure funding as well as the significance of bipartisanship with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
While boasting about the virtues of American infrastructure, the 80-year-old president veered off into a “phrase” he claimed to be paraphrasing from his “old neighborhood” by saying the “world is not a patch in our jeans.”
“Our best days are ahead of us. And I mean this from the bottom of my heart. I’ve been doing this a long time, folks. Our best days are ahead of us. Are not behind us. I’ve long said. I mean, this. I have never, ever, ever been more optimistic about America’s prospects. And am today. Never. Never. I’ve traveled over 140 countries around the world. I’ll paraphrase the phrase of my old neighborhood: The rest of the countries, the world is not a patch in our jeans, if we do what we wanna do, we need to do,” the US president said.
Biden’s off-the-cuff comment left many social media users struggling to understand what he was saying as a quick Google search turned up zero results for the esoteric expression.
“In today’s episode of ‘what the hell did @JoeBiden’ say?” RedState columnist Buzz Patterson joked in a tweet, posting a video of Biden’s remarks.
In today’s episode of “what the hell did @JoeBiden” say? https://t.co/QwLQmDm7HL
— Buzz Patterson (@BuzzPatterson) January 4, 2023
“What?” National Review journalist Claude Thompson asked.
“His old neighborhood really said this!” Townhall columnist Kevin McMahon tweeted.
Senator Josh Hawley’s press secretary Abigail Marone commented, “Makes perfect sense if your brain is mush.”
Washington Examiner columnist Becket Adams tweeted, “Was there a lot of lead paint in said neighborhood?”
was there a lot of lead paint in said neighborhood? https://t.co/lbyLZnOuYA
— T. Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) January 4, 2023
Biden wrapped up his Wednesday speech by repeatedly praising the United States and declaring how optimistic he is about his country’s future, but the howler left no one wondering as to why his handlers are terrified to put him in front of a microphone.
The US president said in July he “has” cancer after claiming that he and many of his friends from his childhood home in Delaware suffered due to oil refinery emissions. Fox News later confirmed from the White House that he was instead referring to his past skin cancer removal.
Among his “most brilliant” slips that hit the funny bone of Twitter users was his last January’s reference to his vice president, Kamala Harris, as “President Harris.”
Borrell’s jungle vs. garden analogy
Biden’s outlandish analogy on Wednesday resembled that of Josep Borrell, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, who described Europe as a “garden” while banishing the rest of the world as “a jungle” that could “invade the garden.”
“Europe is a garden. We have built a garden. Most of the rest of the world is a jungle,” Borrell said while addressing the opening ceremony of the European Diplomatic Academy in Bruges, Belgium, in October.
“The rest of the world is not exactly a garden,” he claimed. “Most of the rest of the world is a jungle, and the jungle could invade the garden. The gardeners should take care of it.”
Borrell’s defamatory comment faced widespread international backlash, with some countries calling his words an indication of racism and moral degeneration of the West. Some members of the European Parliament also interpreted Borrell’s words as an embodiment of colonial and neo-colonial thinking.
The US incumbent’s gaffe-strewn speeches have turned into a constant cause of concern for the White House aides and they need to come up with an antidote as there are at least two more years of absurdist, preposterous comments to go.
Biden’s mistakes, bizarre body movements, and embarrassing instances such as shaking hands with “thin air” have already left many doubting whether the oldest president in US history is mentally fit to run the country.