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March 12, 2020

A new video of Biden emerges, again showing an old, confused man

By Andrea Widburg

On Tuesday, a viral video showed Biden exploding with rage when a union construction worker asked him how he was going to appeal to the average union man, considering his hostility to the Second Amendment.  Rather than engaging with the man in civil terms, Biden instantly told him, "You're full of s---."  The engagement went downhill from there.

A short time later, another video taken later the same day emerged.  This one showed Biden walking to his car, surrounded by aides.  As he walked, reporters peppered him with questions about his interaction with the construction worker and about the coronavirus.  Biden appeared to ignore all the questions but for one: a reporter asked him if he had any regrets about his interaction with the voter regarding guns.  Biden had a short response:

"Well, I'm surprised that Sanders is joining Trump."

Huh?

As you can see, Bo Erickson, the CBS reporter who caught the moment, tried to present it as Biden "pivoting" away from the incident with the voter and, instead, speaking disparagingly of Bernie "joining Trump."

Erickson seems awfully generous in his interpretation.  As long as there's an active primary, Bernie will be attacking Biden, just as Trump is having the time of his life attacking all of the Democrat primary candidates.  There's no "surprise" there.  That's the nature of primaries.

In other words, the statement is not just a non sequitur, or "pivot"; it's nonsensical.  It speaks again to concerns that Joe Biden is increasingly disconnected from reality.

It would almost be a relief to learn that Biden misheard the question and thought it was about something Bernie said, rather than being about Biden's own behavior just hours before.  It would still be a silly answer because, as noted above, it's natural for primary opponents to attack each other.  At least, though, it would be related to the question.

Reading through the internet, especially on ordinary citizens' Facebook pages, Democrats are complaining that these viral videos of Joe's take him out of context.  They say that most of the time, he's doing fine and making sense.

Their argument is that when someone's every word is caught for posterity, there will be mistakes.  But all of Biden's mistakes trend in one direction.  Obama was often ignorant, but Biden's misspeaks always betray confusion and aggression.

Moreover, if Biden is doing so well and making so much sense, why are his stump speeches getting shorter and shorter?  And why did it take three cuts (implying at least three takes) to make Biden's 21-second "thank you and please donate" video?

Was this an attempt to make the video look hip and edgy?  If so, it failed.  It looked as if Joe was flubbing his lines and the video's producer sewed together the good cuts.

Those who worry about Biden's health, either out of altruism or because they support either Trump or Bernie, were not sanguine about the video of his nonsensical answer.  They believe there's a real problem:

It doesn't help that, just a few hours after Biden's bizarre non sequitur, he seemed to forget the word "president":

With Americans feeling nervous, Biden does not look like a man capable of taking the lead and restoring confidence.

On Tuesday, a viral video showed Biden exploding with rage when a union construction worker asked him how he was going to appeal to the average union man, considering his hostility to the Second Amendment.  Rather than engaging with the man in civil terms, Biden instantly told him, "You're full of s---."  The engagement went downhill from there.

A short time later, another video taken later the same day emerged.  This one showed Biden walking to his car, surrounded by aides.  As he walked, reporters peppered him with questions about his interaction with the construction worker and about the coronavirus.  Biden appeared to ignore all the questions but for one: a reporter asked him if he had any regrets about his interaction with the voter regarding guns.  Biden had a short response:

"Well, I'm surprised that Sanders is joining Trump."

Huh?

As you can see, Bo Erickson, the CBS reporter who caught the moment, tried to present it as Biden "pivoting" away from the incident with the voter and, instead, speaking disparagingly of Bernie "joining Trump."

Erickson seems awfully generous in his interpretation.  As long as there's an active primary, Bernie will be attacking Biden, just as Trump is having the time of his life attacking all of the Democrat primary candidates.  There's no "surprise" there.  That's the nature of primaries.

In other words, the statement is not just a non sequitur, or "pivot"; it's nonsensical.  It speaks again to concerns that Joe Biden is increasingly disconnected from reality.

It would almost be a relief to learn that Biden misheard the question and thought it was about something Bernie said, rather than being about Biden's own behavior just hours before.  It would still be a silly answer because, as noted above, it's natural for primary opponents to attack each other.  At least, though, it would be related to the question.

Reading through the internet, especially on ordinary citizens' Facebook pages, Democrats are complaining that these viral videos of Joe's take him out of context.  They say that most of the time, he's doing fine and making sense.

Their argument is that when someone's every word is caught for posterity, there will be mistakes.  But all of Biden's mistakes trend in one direction.  Obama was often ignorant, but Biden's misspeaks always betray confusion and aggression.

Moreover, if Biden is doing so well and making so much sense, why are his stump speeches getting shorter and shorter?  And why did it take three cuts (implying at least three takes) to make Biden's 21-second "thank you and please donate" video?

Was this an attempt to make the video look hip and edgy?  If so, it failed.  It looked as if Joe was flubbing his lines and the video's producer sewed together the good cuts.

Those who worry about Biden's health, either out of altruism or because they support either Trump or Bernie, were not sanguine about the video of his nonsensical answer.  They believe there's a real problem:

It doesn't help that, just a few hours after Biden's bizarre non sequitur, he seemed to forget the word "president":

With Americans feeling nervous, Biden does not look like a man capable of taking the lead and restoring confidence.