President Biden was panned for repeating a claim about a Navy appointment and for singling out a young girl during a “Friendsgiving” meal for service members Sunday.
“By the way, I’m all Navy. But I was appointed… I was gonna go play [football] at the Naval Academy until I found out the other guys in the backfield were a guy named Roger Staubach and Joe Bellino,” Biden told military personnel and their families on Sunday at an early holiday meal dubbed “Friendsgiving” held in a hangar at Naval Station Norfolk in Norfolk, Virginia.
In June, Biden told Air Force graduates he applied to the Naval Academy after graduating high school, which was in 1961. Last year, the president told Naval Academy graduates he was “appointed to the [Naval] Academy in 1965.”
A Republican-linked X account “RNC Research” asserted that there is no record of either of those things ever happening.
The RNC Research account, dedicated to “exposing the lies, hypocrisy, and failed far-left policies of Joe Biden and the Democrat Party,” shared another clip showing Biden address a 6-year-old girl who had been listening to the president’s remarks from a table in the hangar awaiting the holiday meal.
“And I love your ears. I love ‘em, they’re really cool,” Biden says, walking up to and crouching down to the girl, who appeared to be wearing an animal-ear headband, “What’s your name?”
“Catherine,” the girl responds meekly.
“Catherine? What a beautiful name. That’s my mommy’s name,” Biden said. “How old are you? 17?”
Her younger brother calls out, “No, she’s 6,” before Biden then guesses that the 4-year-old boy could be 15.
“Be nice to your sister, you’re gonna need her one day,” Biden tells the boy. “At least, I did.”
Watch:
“I love your ears. I love them. They’re really cool. How old are you… 17?” – Biden to 6-year-old kid pic.twitter.com/DN66OsXbdm
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) November 19, 2023
RNC Research also mocked how Biden, during the same remarks, said to children, “I like kids better than people.”
The Friendsgiving event, which kicked off the week of Thanksgiving, included service members and military families associated with the Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Gerald R. Ford aircraft carriers. Both vessels are deployed in the eastern Mediterranean amid the Israel-Hamas war. Biden also thanked members for their service before serving part of the meal.
“I’m proud of all of you. And I want to assure you one thing I hope I’ve demonstrated so far. We always, always have your back, always have your back,” Biden also told service members Sunday, a day before his 81st birthday. “We have a lot of obligations as a government. We only have one truly sacred obligation, and that is to prepare those who we send into harm’s way, care for them and their families when they come home, and make sure they’re never forgotten.”
Biden has been mocked over his interactions with children caught on camera in public, including incidents where he sniffed the hair of or nibbled on visibly startled young kids.
He can’t tell the difference between a 17yr old and a 6 year old. Hmmmm…. .