What happens when Joe Biden forgets his script? Like what could possibly go wrong?
A lot of things, including the wonders of the world. In his recent campaign trip to Arizona, the 80-year-old President with a history of frequent memory lapses and gaffes, called the Grand Canyon one of the “nine wonders” of the world. Then there was also something “ironic” in the gaffe episode.
On Tuesday (August 08, 2023), Biden visited an airfield near the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona to designate over a million acres of land near the canyon as a national monument.
During his speech to a handful of Democrats, Biden went off the script and did what he is known for – make a fool of himself with wild claims detached from reality.
He talked about Grand Canyon and claimed it was one of the “nine wonders” of this planet.
Biden’s rant about Grand Canyon continued with his familiar pattern of telling some personal tale, which in this case was the first time when he first saw Grand Canyon. “It was years ago,” he said, “when I was a young senator.”
Old Joe seemed to forget that when he was a young senator, it wasn’t years ago; it was decades ago. But before he could forget more, he suddenly seemed to remember he had spoken of nine wonders and did an auto-correct on the statement:
“As a matter of fact, I said nine. It’s one of the seven wonders of the world.”
But that wasn’t the end of Biden’s circus near the Grand Canyon. He also went on to say the region was “a haven of ironic species.” Media noted the lack of sense in there and commented that Biden clearly meant to say “iconic” but erroneously called it “ironic.”
Most of the left-aligned mainstream media chose silence on Biden’s gaffes in Arizona. But conservatives on social media had some thoughts to share. Biden was instantly fact-checked:
There are those who declared Joe Biden an “embarrassment from coast to coast.”
International media also took satirical jabs at Biden over the gaffe of “nine wonders.” Russia Today tweeted that Biden himself is perhaps the ninth wonder.
Hindustan News Hub pointed at Biden’s ignorance and wrote:
The incident highlights the importance of accuracy and knowledge when making public statements, especially for public figures such as the President of the United States.