Former President Donald Trump pounced on President Biden’s first verbal blunder during a highly anticipated press conference Thursday in which the commander in chief mixed up his 2024 opponent with his vice president.
Biden, 81, made the stunning gaffe less than 10 minutes into his briefing, while answering a question – the first of the evening – about Vice President Kamala Harris’ electoral prospects against the 78-year-old former president.
“Look, I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president if I think she’s not qualified to be president,” Biden said at the event organized by the White House to allay mounting concerns that he is no longer mentally fit for office.
The ex-president took to social media within minutes of Biden’s error.
“Crooked Joe begins his ‘Big Boy’ Press Conference with, ‘I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president, though I think she was not qualified to be president.’ Great job, Joe!,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, misquoting the latter part of Biden’s answer.
The Biden campaign fired back on X, in a tweet posted on the presumptive Democratic nominee for president’s account mid-presser.
“By the way: Yes, I know the difference. One’s a prosecutor, and the other’s a felon,” read the post.
Trump highlighted other instances of Biden stumbling over words and stuttering during the briefing, in clips of the event posted on Truth Social.
“Crooked Joe has a case of Trump Derangement Syndrome!” he wrote in another post.
The press conference did not appear to significantly ease Democratic concerns about Biden’s ability to beat Trump in November, with one House lawmaker, Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), announcing shortly after the briefing that he hopes the president will “step aside from the presidential campaign.”
Himes is the 16th congressional Democrat to call for Biden to end his re-election bid since his disastrous June 27 debate against Trump.
