If he’s so sad, why does he look so happy?
Meme-makers reveled over President Biden’s surprisingly upbeat demeanor and happy face Thursday as he addressed the nation on President-elect Donald Trump’s sweeping Election Day victory over Vice President Kamala Harris.
X was flooded with speculation that Biden was actually giddy over his veep’s loss and saw it as revenge against this party over the elites who pushed him to drop out of the race over the summer.
“This is the look of a guy who just watched his carjacker get t-boned by a garbage truck,” Magills mused on X.
“Biden, in fact, is thrilled with the outcome,” user Chris said.
“He hates her so much,” Sunny added.
“Biden looks the happiest he has ever been during his presidency,” conservative user Greg Price wrote.
“This is the happiest I’ve seen Biden in a long time,” user Lady of USA mused.
“Biden is thrilled. Biden is literally on cloud nine and he is trying very hard to hide it but he is just so happy that the people that ousted him got what they deserved,” user Insurrection Barbie wrote.
“Joe Biden is the happiest man in America today,” conservative pundit Ben Shapiro quipped.
“Look at Biden. He was walking like a young man—happy, active, and not forgetting things while speaking… Did the defeat cure him, or was he acting like that all along?” another user said.
At the conclusion of his speech at the White House Rose Garden in which he assured the public there would be a transfer of power, Biden, 81, blew a kiss to the cameras, further fueling such speculation about how the president really felt.
Biden had weathered an unprecedented Democratic Party revolt against him over the summer in the wake of his fumbling debate performance against Trump in late June.
A cacophony of Democratic lawmakers publicly pleaded with him behind the scenes to throw in the towel and pass the baton onto Harris due to their concerns about his mental acuity and ability to win.
Initially, Biden resisted the pressure, but ultimately folded on July 21.
Throughout Harris’s time atop the ticket, speculation festered that Biden had been bitter over the mutiny against him. Biden later gave an address to the Democratic National Convention in August and then jetted off immediately afterward, missing the rest of the party gathering.
He then spent roughly two weeks on various getaways and has kept a rotably low public profile, fueling conjecture that he was privately sulking over the ordeal.
In September, Biden briefly donned a red Trump hat during a visit to a fire station in Shanksville, Pa. to mark the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The White House later clarified that Biden had done so as “a gesture” to Trump supporters in the room who asked him to wear the cap.
Trump has repeatedly mused that Biden “hates” Harris, 60, and is bitter over the move to oust him.
“I’ll give you a little secret: [Biden] hates her. He can’t stand her,” Trump said. “But he got 14 million votes. They threw him out. She got zero votes.”
On election night, First Lady Jilly Biden wore a red dress, which similarly fueled speculation from social media users as to her intentions.
“Jill wore all red to vote. As the wife of a democrat politician there’s no way she doesn’t know how this looks. Biden and Jill are pissed,” user Coco wrote.
After Harris’ loss, Democratic and progressive operatives quickly plunged into frantic finger-pointing, with many faulting Biden’s late-stage decision to drop out of the race as a serious hindrance to his veep’s prospects.
“We ran the best campaign we could, considering Joe Biden was president. Joe Biden is the singular reason Kamala Harris and Democrats lost tonight,” one aide to Harris told Politico.
Throughout her campaign, Harris strenuously criticizing Biden and even took flack for telling ABC News’ “The View” last month that “not a thing that comes to mind,” when asked about differences between her and the president.
Both Biden had stumped for Harris on the campaign trail, though the president’s allies in the White House had felt he was being sidelined and given lower-profile assignments, Axios reported.
“Setbacks are unavoidable, but giving up is unforgivable. We all get knocked down, but the measure of our character, as my dad would say, is how quickly we get back up,” Biden said during his brief, seven-minute speech in the Rose Garden.
