President Joe Biden sat down for an interview with The Weather Channel.
And it is fair to say the rare moment — somehow — did not go well for the president.
At one point, he was asked, “Is it the responsibility of the U.S. to protect migrants who might be fleeing extreme weather in their countries?”
You might think this would be a fairly easy question to answer. Yet, for some reason, Biden instead launched into a meandering and confusing response about schools in America and lead pipes.
“I think the United States should do everything it can to help people who are in desperate need and have no other means of help. And we’ve always done that. It is not our — it is just who we are, we’re the United States of America,” Biden said.
He continued:
“And the idea to begrudge the ability to do — For example, one of the things we’re doing, is we’re providing for changing the environment — the physical structures in the countries which they come from so they have better lighting, they have more secure uh — For example, you have so many lead pipes all across America and throughout the country. You have 444,000 schools, you turn on the water fountain, you may have lead in the water.”
Biden added, “And there’s thousands of people — we’re replacing every lead pipe in America.”
Watch the video below:
"Is it the responsibility of the U.S. to protect migrants who might be fleeing extreme weather in their countries?"
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 9, 2023
Biden: "We're replacing every single lead pipe in America!" pic.twitter.com/LYEjmsTLJ0
Huh? Recall, this started out as a question about the U.S. protecting migrants.
Check out some of the reactions below:
He's fine. 5 more years. No problem. https://t.co/wkS68QnltS
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) August 9, 2023
He can’t even make it through a Weather Channel interview without getting confused. https://t.co/lQLxcYa5X4
— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) August 9, 2023
Quite the answer. And would love to see the full interview without edits, Weather Channel. Can that be posted on the website? Fairly common thing to do for big interviews… https://t.co/CYtbB3utpC
— Joe Concha (@JoeConchaTV) August 9, 2023
Perhaps at some other time, such a flub could be easily dismissed. But this is a president who rarely sits down for interviews or holds formal press conferences. So you would expect him to be on the ball when he does give an interview. And this interview with The Weather Channel was supposed to be about climate change, which should have been an easy discussion.
Yet we got this strange answer, made up of incomplete sentences that somehow veered into an apparently entirely different topic. That’s not the best for inspiring confidence in his ability to serve another four-year term.