We all know Democratic President Joe Biden is all too gaffe-prone. But on Monday, he made one for the history books and one that makes us all even more concerned about his mental abilities.
He spoke at the International Association of Fire Fighters Legislative Conference in Washington. Now, seeing as this was another day that ended in a “y,” at least one, if not multiple verbal mistakes were to be expected.
But this one was indeed a doozy.
As usual, Biden, like any other lifelong politician, was trying to make himself relatable to his audience, a room of firefighters. And so, he told a story describing just how important his local Fire Hall was growing up. While he didn’t end up being a firefighter, cop, or priest as apparently a lot of his buddies did, the close proximity and community importance of that Fire Hall not only kept his life on track but also saved his life.
He explained this by retelling a time when he began to have “these terrible headaches. I was diagnosed with having a – well, anyway. They had to take the top of my head off a couple of times, see if I had a brain.”
Umm, yes, he did actually say. Clearly, parts of it were meant as a joke. He further explained that he had to be rushed to a hospital, but the usual travel options weren’t available to him because of inclement weather. It was apparently, his fire company from back home in Claymont, Delaware, who got Biden to the hospital “in the middle of a snowstorm for a nine-hour operation and saved my life.”
Now, as crazy as all that sounds, the story has some truth.
As his 2007 book, “Promises to Keep,” explains, Biden was, in fact, rushed to emergency surgery back in 1988 after passing out in a hotel room for five hours, according to a 2019 The Delaware News Journal report. The outlet went on to explain that Biden had suffered from major brain aneurysms and had to have a microsurgical craniotomy to repair the damage. At best, the odds of success and life after the operation were 50-50.
Of course, Biden survived and amazingly didn’t seem to have any problem picking up where he left off, a major fear at the time. There didn’t seem to be any noticeable signs of diminishing mental or rhetorical skills.
Of course, given the last couple of years, and the insurmountable number of gaffes and mistakes he’s made in that time, I’m sure the same cannot still be said.
The only real question is whether or not the brain aneurysms of his past, and the subsequent surgery, are the reason for his mental decline. All jokes aside, Biden clearly still has a brain, but just how much of it is working or left in operation is debatable.
And the fact that he just told the story of just how far gone his brain might actually be should give us all some very real concerns about the man who is supposedly leading our nation. I just about guarantee you that when Biden said what he did that night, there wasn’t much laughter in the place. Instead, everyone was holding their breath – wondering, “did he really just say that?”
His poor staff members were undoubtedly rolling their eyes, sinking down in their chairs, and having a complete palm-to-forehead moment. That is after they remembered to breathe again.
And yet, they wonder why he’s the least popular president of all time…
