Twice this week,
President Biden has referred to the war in Ukraine as the war in Iraq.
I don't have to tell you, he has been facing doubts from voters about his age.
He is the oldest president, of course, in the nation's history that we've ever had.
One of those instances happened as he was leaving the White House today.
What do you say to people who are concerned about his age and
slip ups like the one he had today?
>> Well, we'll get to Pete Buttigieg's response to that in just a moment, but
first, maybe we should get into what the gaffes were.
One of the instances this week actually featured President Biden mixing up Russia
and Iraq, let's watch.
>> To what extent has Vladimir Putin been weakened by recent events?
>> Its hard to tell, but he is clearly losing the war in Iraq,
he's losing the war at home.
>> So the audio was not great, considering the helicopter in the background, or
at least what sounded like a helicopter.
So I'll read you the transcript, a reporter asked him specifically,
to what extent has Vladimir Putin been weakened by recent events?
Biden responds, it's hard to tell, but he is clearly losing the war in Iraq,
he is losing the war at home.
>> Yeah, that's the second time he's made that same exact mistake,
confusing Ukraine for Iraq.
>> Over the last two days.
>> And when you make the mistake the first time, I guarantee you,
your staff sits you down and says, please, Mr. President, do not do that again.
That is greatly deleterious to your campaign.
And nonetheless, he couldn't help himself, and he did it again the very next day,
and there's more where that came from.
>> Yes, in fact, just today, he also mixed up the Constitution with
the Declaration of Independence while on MSNBC, let's watch.
>> What I think, the Constitution says, we hold these truths we sell,
that all men and women are created equal, endowed by their Creator.
That's the uniqueness of America, we never fully lived up to it,
we never walked away from it.
And this court seems to say, that no, that's not always the case.
>> So President Biden was reacting to the Supreme Court's ruling on affirmative
action, that's the context of the discussion.
He referenced the Constitution when he should have referenced the Declaration of
Independence.
>> Yeah, so that's a more common mistake.
I'm not sure that it even belongs in this category,
especially given the context of the former President Donald Trump, who would say,
the box of Fruity Pebbles says, all men are endowed as large as they want.
Okay, no, none of that is true.
Okay, so compared to the guy who thought we should inject ourselves with
disinfectant to cure COVID, Biden still looks like a genius.
But there's a worse one, you got the Modi one?
>> Yes, I do, yes, I do.
Okay, so this week, he also mixed up India and China.
So let's get to, I think this tweet describes it perfectly.
So both last night at a fundraiser, then again this morning at the White House,
Biden referred to Ukraine as Iraq and
said, my new best friend, the prime minister of China,
before correcting himself to say the Prime Minister of India.
So he was referring to Narendra Modi, who is, of course,
the Prime Minister of India, but referred to him as the Prime Minister of China.
So, look, sometimes when we do the show, since it's not scripted,
we're not on a teleprompter, we will think one thing, but we'll misspeak.
That happens time to time, that's totally normal,
but it's happening regularly with Biden.
These are all gaffes within the same week.
>> Yeah, no, guys, he's in trouble, come on, keep it real, keep it real.
So a week or two weeks ago, he had that,
I don't know if you wanna call it a gaffe, whatever you want to call it, but
at the end of one of his speeches, he said, God save the queen, right?
And so, in the beginning, before I heard the full explanation, I was like, uh-oh,
we gotta pull him right now, right now, right?
But as it turns out, he says that every once in a while,
he's been saying that for years.
Not every time, but sparingly at the end of his speech,
it's like a manner of speaking, like the way he says malarkey.
Sometimes he just says it, God save the queen, right?
But when people are questioning whether you have dementia and
the queen's already dead, I don't think you should go back to that line, right?
So context matters within the context of Joe Biden making these gaffes after
gaffes.
And again, remember that one more important piece of context that leans in
the other direction for Joe Biden is that he has made gaffes his whole life.
>> That's true, that's a really good point, that is a good point.
>> So he would say absurd things like, hey, going to a 711 and
you can't find one that isn't owned by an Indian, you know what I'm saying.
Like, no, Joe, don't say that, and that was 20 years ago.
>> I don't know if that's a gaffe, it's more of a just lapse in judgment over
what you think is humorous or funny or whatever.
>> Yeah, sure, and, I mean, he's got corn pop.
He's got all these weird things that Biden does, and that's okay.
Before, it was quirky and it gave him character, now, it feels very different.
And, guys, it's not like just the corn pop story,
which miraculously turned out to be true, etc.
>> The Mandela stuff.
>> The lies are different, lies are just political, right?
But in this case, it is a great number of massive screw ups in the midst of
people questioning how old you are and whether you have dementia.
If it's not actually dementia or whatever, some form of that,
at least in terms of politics and optics, looks disastrous.
>> So what do we do and what does he do, right?
Because okay, so let's also be fair.
So I'm considering how exhausted I would be if I had his schedule,
if I had to do the travel that he does.
If I have to do one meeting a day I'm pulling my hair out,
I hate meetings, that's what it's really about.
But exhaustion has an impact on you as well, right?
So, he's up there in age.
He has a physically and
mentally taxing schedule as President of the United States, as you would expect.
And also, I don't know what to do with this information.
You get what I'm saying?
What's the course of action?
>> No, I do, so okay, but it doesn't mean it's realistic or gonna happen.
First of all, in terms of the taxing schedule, it depends, right?
As Buttigieg said, no, when we do meetings, he'll ask questions.
>> Let's actually go to that video because I promised
you that we would get to Pete Buttigieg providing cover for
Biden, and that's exactly what he does in this clip, let's watch.
>> You could be in a room with him the way I often am, seeing how he is
simultaneously focused on a big picture vision and very focused on details.
I'll tell you, we've had, for example,
meetings on some of the work that we've been doing with rail infrastructure,
where he winds up drilling in on questions so detailed.
We have to go back and set up another meeting or
pull in experts from Amtrak to help satisfy the President's desire for
detailed information and his focus on how that connects up into the bigger picture.
>> So, Cenk, was that convincing at all?
>> No, it was the opposite.
>> [LAUGH] >> So, guys,
I think we have an extraordinarily low bar for people in power.
>> We do.
>> He's, look, he's the President of the United States,
the most powerful man on Earth, and he asks questions.
Does he?
What else does Joe do?
He just dives into details.
What's your expectation that the President gets a briefing and
doesn't ask any questions and doesn't ask about the details?
Are you expecting the president to be a moron?
Of course you ask questions, of course you ask about the details.
So, sorry, no, that is not 1% impressive and every president is different.
Bill Clinton worked his ass off, Barack Obama was,
by all accounts, incredibly hardworking.
On the other hand, Trump didn't do anything,
he just watched Fox News all day long.
Don't tell me how taxing the presidency is by definition.
So anyways, so I'm not at all convinced by that.
But look, so what can we do about it?
I know what the right answer is.
It's just no one's got the courage to do it, I'm being honest, okay?
The right answer is someone really strong goes into the race and
pushes Biden out, cuz Biden is being obstinate.
And honestly, sometimes a sign of dementia is being stubborn and
will not change your mind under any circumstance, right?
But you know what'll change your mind?
If you're polling third and you're the sitting president,
you're gonna leave the race cuz you don't wanna get embarrassed.
But Mary Anne and RFK Jr. are in the race, God bless Mary Ann.
I think she has a lot of courage and that's why she's in there.
But it hasn't worked in pushing him out, so
it has to be someone who can do it and there we batting a zero, a flat out zero.
Not one person will go in the race and push him out.
And so, if you're mad, honestly, be mad at every other Democrat,
everyone else on the left, in the whole country,
cuz no one will do what is obviously the correct thing to do.