Yahoo Finance Biden repeats story about Charlottesville white supremacist rally 'nearly word for word' minutes after telling it the first time
On Wednesday, Biden spoke at a private presidential campaign fundraising event.
He told a story about why he chose to run. Then, minutes later, repeated it "nearly word for word."
The gaffe comes as both Biden, Trump, and members of Congress face criticism for their advanced age.
Speaking at a campaign fundraiser hosted in the living room of a real estate heiress on Wednesday, President Joe Biden briefly mentioned one of the cementing reasons why he chose to run for president in 2020, one that he's brought up many times before: former President Donald Trump's response to a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Minutes later, according to a White House media pool report, Biden shared the story again "nearly word for word."
A transcript of his speech on Wednesday was later publicly published by the White House, verifying the pool's report and further documenting his rehashing of a story about "folks from Charlottesville, as they came out of the fields and carrying those swastikas."
—Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) September 21, 2023
Biden, who's currently 80 years old and is the oldest-ever elected US president, has faced criticism for his age both while in office and on the campaign trail by Republicans and Democrats alike for a mixture of reasons: some believe he's mentally unfit for office at his age while others say it's simply time for a new generation of leaders to enter lead the nation.
While Biden's reelection campaign has called Republicans who focus on his age a "one trick pony," the president has directly addressed his seniority on numerous occasions, even having gone as far as acknowledging it's a "legitimate" concern for voters.
"I think it's a legitimate thing to be concerned about anyone's age, including mine," Biden said in October 2022, before he had officially announced he was running for a second term in office. "I think the best way to make the judgment is to watch me. Am I slowing up? Am I going at the same pace?"
On Wednesday, Biden once again spoke about the elephant in the room.
As the White House pool report notes, he said that "though he looked 30, he knew why people talked about it - and said he believed that the nation could still be united."
While Republicans have repeatedly attacked Biden for his age, Trump, who's mercilessly attacked Biden throughout his presidency online and in interviews, isn't going after the 46th president over his age. Instead, Trump, who's currently 77 years old, has declared he believes he's unfit for office because of incompetence.
"But no, he's not too old at all," Trump said on a radio show in mid-September.
Though Trump and Biden have not been confirmed as the Republican and Democratic Party's presidential nominations for 2024 just yet, they're both at the moment poised to in 2024 as polling shows they're well ahead of their fellow candidates in the race.
According to a new Pew Research report, the two senior citizens are both running for the nation's most powerful seat in government at a time when 79% of Americans think there should be an upper limit to how old federal elected officials can be.
The White House did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Read the original article on Business Insider
