Olâ Uncle Joe isnât too familiar with the interwebs, it seems.
This usually isnât a problem for America.
Sure, I imagine the White House IT workers probably have their hands full with President Biden, but thatâs their problem; if worst comes to worst, they can give him an old Commodore 64 and tell him itâs a super-duper secret computer only he can use, then let him putter around on it until he gets bored and/or falls asleep. Or maybe give him one of son Hunterâs old laptops. Those donât even work anymore.
On Monday, alas, it became our problem. Thatâs because Biden was appearing at the White House â along with Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona â to announce the beta version of the student loan forgiveness web portal was going online.
Not that Biden really knows what a beta test or a web portal are. But speechwriters do â and, according to a White House transcript, they were at least able to provide him with enough meat through the teleprompter that he could get through most of it without sounding like grandpa trying to log into his AOL dial-up account.
âAt the end of my remarks, Iâm going to officially launch this new ap- â new application site at StudentAid.gov. StudentAid.gov,â Biden said.
âYouâll be able to fill out your name, Social Security number, date of birth, and contact information. No forms to upload. No special log-in to remember. Itâs available in English and in Spanish, on desktop and mobile.â
So easy even a Biden can do it.
However, things got a bit hairy when he warned people about fraudsters who might try to take advantage of borrowers.
âIf you get a call pretending theyâre from the government trying to help you with your loans, letâs be clear: Hang up,â he said. âYou never have to pay for any federal help from the Student Loan Program.â
If you do get those calls, Biden told Americans to go to a website to report them: ReportFraudDOTFTC.gov.
The website he sent them to, of course, doesnât exist.
The countryâs commander-in-chief â the man responsible for hardening America against cyberattacks and setting its tech policy â didnât know better than to read the word âdotâ phonetically, as if it were part of the web address.
Confidence-inspiring.
But no, the Biden stans werenât giving up on this one, although they couldnât use the old âchildhood stutterâ standby excuse.
âDot is probably department of transportation since ftc followed dot,â one Twitter user suggested.
Alas, not so much:
Not that this was the only odd moment during the presidentâs remarks, of course. No one tells a Biden when heâs done gaffing â and the president doesnât even need to say a word for things to get awkward.
At the end of his remarks, Biden was asked by a reporter whether the administration would be forgiving private Student loans as well as federal ones, which are the only type of loan covered under the current relief package.
Whoever asked the question seems to have hit the pause button on Biden, who did a Marcel Marceau act while Cardona answered for him:
Everything is totally fine with this man. Tip-top health, both physically and mentally. Sharp as a tack.
At least the White House transcribers were able, yet again, to fix Bidenâs gaffe on the URL. âIf you get any questionable calls, please tell us by going to ReportFraud â ReportFraud â d-o-t â FTC.gov. ,â the official transcript reads.
As for the presidentâs disconcerting reboot moment at the end of the speech, looks like thatâs another issue for the White House IT team. Those guys must be exhausted.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
