White House staffers have corrected the US president’s public statements nearly 150 times so far this year, the Daily Caller says
US President Joe Biden speaks during the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner at the Washington Hilton, in Washington, DC, on April 27, 2024. © Brendan Smialowski / AFP
US President Joe Biden has made so many mistakes in his public statements this year alone that his aides were forced to correct him at least 148 times, an analysis of White House transcripts has shown.
The review, conducted by conservative news website the Daily Caller and released on Monday, found that Biden has averaged nearly 1.3 gaffes per day in 2024. The analysis spanned 118 statements, speeches and press encounters for which White House transcripts were issued. Such transcripts are released every time the president makes public statements or takes questions from reporters, and White House staffers correct erroneous remarks.
Revisions have ranged from correcting Biden’s factual errors to adding words that he should have included to changing the meaning of his comments entirely, the Daily Caller said. Mistakes are noted on the transcript, such as crossing out an erroneous word and adding the correct word in brackets.
For example, when Biden said “every American” voted against his American Rescue Plan, he should have said “every Republican.” In another case, he said a threat to democracy must be “defended,” when the correct word was “defeated.” The transcript for just one speech – Biden’s State of the Union address last month – had 13 corrections noted.
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Factual errors included claims that 720 million Americans – more than double the nation’s population – received Covid-19 vaccines. And when Biden referred to a Georgia woman who was killed by an illegal migrant, amid pressure from Republicans to “say her name,” he called her “Lincoln” rather than her correct name, Laken. He also referred to seniors with “disabilities” as seniors with “diabetes.”
The Daily Caller said it didn’t count many corrections that didn’t alter the meaning of Biden’s remarks, such as adding an “s” at the end of a noun or adding a word that was necessary for clarity. It also didn’t include alternations that weren’t clearly marked in the transcripts or mistakes that were apparently covered up.
For instance, while giving a speech last week at a conference in Washington, Biden apparently read a teleprompter instruction out loud. “Imagine what we could do next,” he said, urging voters to reelect him in November. “Four more years, pause.” The original White House transcript did not include the word “pause,” the Daily Caller said. It was later updated to include the gaffe.
Biden’s frequent mental stumbles have raised questions about his fitness for office as he seeks a second four-year term. He already ranks as the oldest president in American history, at 81, and he would be 86 at the end of a second term. A New York Times poll released last month showed that 72% of US voters, including over half of Democrats, agreed that Biden is too old to be an effective president.
