President Biden told reporters Tuesday that he’s heading up to New York City and “doing 9/11” in a gaffe that was ruthlessly mocked by social media users.
The 81-year-old president, who was forced to end his re-election bid in July over mounting questions about his mental acuity, made the verbal blunder as he previewed his near-term travel plans.
“I’m going up to my granddaughter’s birthday in New York,” Biden said on the White House lawn as he prepared to board his Marine One helicopter.
“Then we’re going to watch the debate and tomorrow I’m doing 9/11,” the president added, with unfortunate phrasing.
Biden was seemingly referencing his scheduled participation in solemn remembrance ceremonies marking the 23rd anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Biden is slated to travel to Ground Zero in New York and the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pa., before heading back to the Washington, DC, area to mourn the victims of the attack on the Pentagon in Arlington, Va.
The octogenarian president’s verbal slip-up did not go unnoticed on X.
“YIKES,” RNC Research, an X account managed by the Republican National Committee, posted.
“What?” Libs of TikTok tweeted, sharing a clip of the gaffe.
Paul Williams, the executive director of the Center for Public Enterprise think tank, shared an image of the Department of Homeland Security’s famous colored-coded terrorism advisory system marked “Severe.”
Podcast host Mike Sperrazza tweeted, “He’s cooked,” in an apparent reference to Biden’s declining cognitive abilities.
“Kamala [Harris] covered this up for 4 years,” another social media user posted on X.
Biden’s presidency has been mired by hundreds of verbal misstatements and dozens of brutal gaffes which contributed to majorities of Americans believing he is not fit to serve a second term in the Oval Office.
His propensity to misspeak and freeze at times was on full display in his disastrous June 20 debate against former President Donald Trump.
Biden dropped out of the presidential race less than a month later at the urging of top Democratic leaders and donors.
The president’s latest gaffe came just hours before Vice President Kamala Harris – whom he endorsed to replace him on the Democratic ticket – would take the stage and debate Trump for the first time in Philadelphia.
