ANALYSIS – Joe Biden's mental acuity is again coming into question as he seemingly forgets the name of his secretary of defense, Lloyd Austin. This latest mental lapse occurred during a Black Entertainment Network (BET) interview intended to woo hesitant Black voters.
Voters “of color,” especially Blacks, proved crucial to Biden's 2020 win, and his campaign is now fighting to retain them.
During the BET interview, Biden told journalist Ed Gordon he had taken “heat” for appointing Black people, such as Austin, to high-ranking government positions.
Biden said: “And so, it's all about, it's all about treating people with dignity. It's about making sure that—look. I mean, for example, look at the heat I'm getting because I named uh, the secretary of defense, the Black man. I named Ketanji Brown, I mean, because of the people I've named.”
In the video we can see that Biden appears to forget Austin's name, struggles for a moment and says, “the Black man,” or maybe it was “a Black man.” It's hard to say which since his words are so garbled and incoherent.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, interpreted Biden as having said “the Black man,” adding: “Nothing says ‘dignity' quite like referring to the Secretary of Defense as ‘the Black man.'”
Either way, it's not a good look for the embattled president being deluged by calls from fellow Democrats to drop out of the race. “Joe Biden can't remember his secretary of defense's name, just calls him a black man,” OutKick founder Clay Travis wrote. “I can't believe this is real[.]”
This is especially bad since it's not the first time Biden has forgotten Austin's name, and the name of the Department of Defense as well.
Back in 2021, while Biden was announcing the nomination of two female generals to lead U.S. military combatant commands, he said: “And I want to thank the sec – the, the, ah former general. I keep calling him general, but my, my – the guy who runs that outfit over there.”
“I want to make sure we thank the secretary for all he's done to try to implement what we just talked about. And for recommending these two women for promotion.”
Earlier at the same 2021 event, Biden mentioned the Pentagon chief by his name, “Secretary Austin,” but in that instance Biden was reading from a teleprompter.
First, he calls Austin “the guy who runs that outfit over there.” Now he calls him “the Black guy.”
This time, Biden's defenders claim Biden was just noting his senior black political appointees. The fact that he named his Supreme Court Justice pick, Ketanji Brown right afterwards by name though, makes that claim dubious.
Meanwhile, Ty Walker, an African American Democrat voter in Maryland, told The National Desk (TND) that Biden's comments appeared to be an attempt at pandering Black viewers. Ho noted:
“When any white person employs or gives position to any person of color but then uses that choice to prop themselves up, it takes away from the recognition of the selected person's accomplishments and the ability to do whatever job they're appointed,” he said. “It doesn't make them seem like they truly care about equality or inclusivity. Otherwise, they would have just selected the person and let their talents speak for themselves.”
Sadly, in Austin's case, his talents running “that outfit over there” (the Pentagon) have spoken for themselves. And they don't speak well either.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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Only a Dim can get away with this. The one sided media would crucify anyone else.