President Biden suggested Friday that former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.) is either dead or divorced — and no longer has friends — after an apparent mistake he told members of a Native American community That “there’s nothing wrong with me.”
“Thank you to a great friend, Senator Mark Kelly — who married an incredible woman who was my friend,” the 81-year-old president told the Gila River Indian Community, just south of Phoenix.
Kelly, a Democratic senator from Arizona, is married to Giffords – who is very lively – since 2007.
was a former congresswoman shot in the head On a constituent forum in Tucson in January 2011 and miraculously survived.
Giffords resigned from the House of Representatives a year later to focus on her recovery.
Moments before that mistake, Biden stumbled over the name of the reservation he was visiting and awkwardly reassured the crowd that he was fine.
“I’m Joe Biden and I’m Jill Biden’s husband,” the president said at the top of his speech. “Government, thank you for this introduction. And for the Gila Indian River Community – Gila… Gila… There is nothing wrong with me.
Finally he found the right name.
“Gila River Indian Community, (thank you) for welcoming me today,” Biden said.
The President appeared to be having trouble reading the teleprompter in the unrelenting Arizona sun.
As he began his remarks, he took off his trademark aviator sunglasses and put them back on about a minute later.
“I’m wearing these glasses because I’m having trouble seeing,” Biden admitted.
In his remarks, Biden apologized on behalf of the federal government for its historic policy of forcing Native American children into assimilation-focused boarding schools.
The president said, “As President of the United States, I formally apologize for what we did.”
“It’s a very, very long time. “Quite frankly, there is no excuse that this apology took 50 years.”
(Tags to translate) Politics (T) US News (T) Arizona (T) Gabby Giffords (T) Joe Biden (T) Mark Kelly (T) Native American
