President Joe Biden has neither the votes nor the political capital to pass any serious gun control legislation. Thank heavens for that, because video of a viral exchange Biden had with a Detroit auto plant worker over firearms last year on the campaign trail is making the rounds again — and it makes Biden look even worse than he did then.
In March 2020 — during the last handful of in-person campaign appearances any Democratic candidate would make before the pandemic shut that part of the race down — Biden tried to prove his hard-hat bona fides by visiting a Fiat Chrysler plant in Michigan to meet with members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, according to The Hill.
This would normally be a simpatico union crowd, but one of the members in attendance pushed Biden on his position on gun control, saying the then-candidate was “actively trying” to take guns away from Americans.
“You’re full of s***,” Biden responded.
The videos of the exchange were an admixture of ignorance and the “lying dog-faced pony soldier” aggressive side to Biden his handlers had been trying to steer him away from.
At one point during the exchange, he referred to a well-known type of long rifle as an “AR-14,” called the man a “horse’s a**” and then threatened the autoworker.
“Don’t tell me that, pal, or I’m going to go outside with you, man,” Biden told the man, later identified as Jerry Wayne. (Wayne would go on to get a rifle he christened the “AR-14” and inscribed Biden’s “You’re full of s***” quote on the side, as featured in a National Rifle Association ad.)
There were a few reasons the video didn’t become a defining moment in the Biden campaign. One was that it involves guns, a subject most of the establishment media feels is icky — even if Biden’s behavior during the encounter was boorish, unbecoming and physically threatening. Another was that, just days after the incident occurred, the country entered a lockdown we’re only beginning to fully emerge from.
Because of that — not to mention the fact the media didn’t like then-President Donald Trump — it didn’t drive home just how ugly and uninformed candidate Biden came across. We’ve had plenty of time for that now.
This is one of the shots of the confrontation between Biden and Wayne that people saw:
WARNING: The following videos contain graphic language that some viewers will find offensive.
WATCH: “You’re full of sh*t,” @JoeBiden tells a man who accused him of “actively trying to end our Second Amendment right.”
“I support the Second Amendment,” Biden adds while vising under-construction auto plant in Detroit. @CBSNews pic.twitter.com/sueOSBaY9P
— Bo Erickson CBS (@BoKnowsNews) March 10, 2020
Earlier this week, Wayne reposted a full version of the encounter on his own Twitter account — and it was another reminder Biden is the same man he always is.
—MUCH BETTER AUDIO—
Shout out to @PGranacher for showing a never before seen angle with great audio of the altercation with @JoeBiden and myself. pic.twitter.com/O1MkKhzMSL
— Jerry Wayne (@jerrywaynear14) October 25, 2021
There are several reasons that the Jerry Wayne confrontation matters now, and not just because Wayne reposted it and it’s going viral — with over 18,000 likes in two days.
First, the video makes clear Wayne had a multipart question about how Biden planned on getting the union vote “when there is a large portion of the union workers who are gun enthusiasts and you are actively trying to diminish their Second Amendment rights and take away their guns.”
Biden’s first-line response to the multipart question — which, while tricky and loaded, was also posed fairly — was to say: “You’re full of s***.” Except he wasn’t really, because Biden would later admit he was going to take away the ability to buy some guns, which just happen to be among the most popular firearms in America and ones that are statistically unlikely to be used in homicides.
And when Biden announced his attempt to have the manufacture of the guns banned, he did it on the third anniversary of the Parkland school massacre. That’s the kind of classy president we’re dealing with.
The second thing the video makes clear is just how menacing Biden was. He was shaking his finger in Wayne’s face, clearly in a manner meant to intimidate him into shutting up and backing up. When Wayne made it clear he didn’t want his personal space invaded, Biden’s response? “Don’t tell me that, pal, or I’m going to go outside with you, man.”
If you want to put a septuagenarian against a union autoworker, my money’s not on Biden, but that’s not the point. Faced with an unpleasant question, his response was blunt force intimidation, not persuasion.
He doesn’t have to wag fingers in union autoworkers’ faces anymore, but see if you can’t espy the same vibe from this speech Biden gave announcing his federal vaccine mandate:
Biden on people who haven’t gotten vaccinated:
“We’ve been patient but our patience is wearing thin and your refusal has cost all of us.” pic.twitter.com/Hj4jnmWpuX
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) September 9, 2021
He doesn’t have to convince you. His patience is wearing thin, so shush.
Speaking to Fox News after the encounter, Wayne said Biden should have “curbed what he said a little bit.”
“Yeah, I thought I was pretty articulate and respectful. I didn’t try to raise any feathers and he kind of just went off the deep end,” Wayne said in March 2020.
“I mean, I guess technically speaking he can say whatever he wants,” the autoworker added. “But he was the vice president. He wants to be the president now.”
Biden got his wish. Had the events of 2020 not unfolded the way they did — had we a little more time to look at this creepy encounter again — that might not have happened.
Looking into this minute-and-a-half interaction now, with the benefit of 19 months distance, you can plainly see the irascible shell of a man who’s inspired so many people to chant, in a moment of bowdlerized frustration, “Let’s go, Brandon!”
As one of Biden’s former bosses said, elections have consequences.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
