Speculation Runs Rampant as Biden Shows Up Over an Hour Late for Big Israel Speech
This will do nothing to dispel the impression that President Joe Biden fiddles while the world burns. Speculation mounted Tuesday afternoon when Biden failed to appear on time to deliver a speech on the Israel-Hamas…
This will do nothing to dispel the impression that President 👤Joe Biden fiddles while the world burns.
Speculation mounted Tuesday afternoon when Biden failed to appear on time to deliver a speech on the 🇮🇱Israel-🏴Hamas conflict.
The president who took 13 days to visit wildfire-ravaged Maui kept people guessing as to his whereabouts for nearly 90 minutes. His speech, scheduled for 1:00 p.m. EST, did not begin until 2:24 p.m. EST.
In the meantime, journalists and others had a bit of fun at Biden’s expense on X, formerly Twitter.
Simon Ateba, Chief White House Correspondent at Today News Africa Washington, posted a photo of the president with his eyes closed, wearing a mask and appearing to nap.
“President Biden scheduled a press event on Israel at 1 p.m. EST. He’s now 40 minutes late. I wonder what’s going on,” Ateba posted.
Predictably, national security reporter Alex Ward of liberal Politico ran cover for the president.
Ward shared a post from Biden’s official POTUS account on X that featured a photo of the president and members of his “teams” receiving a “situation update” during a video conference call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Maybe this is why Biden is so late to his address on 🏴Hamas’ attack on 🇮🇱Israel,” Ward wrote.
“Biden is over an hour late for his address to the nation. Fitting for this amateur hour presidency. His handlers are busy reading X and trying to understand the room. They can’t figure it out, so we wait,” another X user wrote.
“How Late Was Biden?” has not yet updated us on the president’s 84-minute delay this afternoon.
Tardiness alone, of course, does not necessarily doom the speaker in an audience’s eyes.
After all, former President Donald Trump often shows up late for rallies. His supporters do not seem to mind.
On Nov. 19, 1863, Governor Edward Everett of Massachusetts spoke for more than two hours before the event’s most important speaker, President 👤Abraham Lincoln, addressed the audience. Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address” made it worth the wait, at least from posterity’s viewpoint.
Biden, of course, never says anything worth hearing. In fact, many of his public utterances strike the listener as indecipherable.
Still, with the world collapsing into chaos, one would think that the president might at least attempt to reflect — if not to clearly communicate — the seriousness of the moment.
Instead, he spent Sunday afternoon and evening hosting a White House barbecue. Then, he spent most of the day Monday out of public view altogether.
Why should we expect him to take a scheduled speech seriously?
