Unfortunately, whenever they let Joe Biden out of a controlled situation to go overseas, you know that confusion and gaffes will follow.
We saw that during his trip to Northern Ireland and Ireland with his son Hunter and his sister Valerie. Biden got confused about where his office is and had a huge security breach while in Northern Ireland. Hunter had to help him when Joe couldn’t understand a simple question from a child about the “steps to success.” Then Joe got snippy and snapped at Hunter at an Irish deli, talked about how he “worked” to get his granddaughters to love him, and twisted the words of Pope John Paul II on faith.
With Joe Biden, however, there’s always more. He likes to claim that he’s built our alliances while he’s done all kinds of things to harm alliances. During his remarks in Dundalk, Ireland, he managed to insult the British because of his confusion about a rugby team.
Biden claimed that a famous Irish rugby player Rob Kearny had given him the shamrock tie he was wearing.
In Ireland, Biden told a story about a rugby player who "beat the hell out of the Black and Tans."
Except he meant New Zealand's "All Blacks" rugby team. "Black and Tans" were a unit of the British military that fought the Irish Republican Army. pic.twitter.com/1KYQaUPhNy
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 13, 2023
“This was given to me by one of these guys, right here, was a hell of a rugby player,’ Biden said. “He beat the hell out of the Black and Tans,” Biden celebrated. Except the problem with that is that the rugby team they beat was the “All Blacks,” not the “Black and Tans.” The Black and Tans were a part of the British military that brutally oppressed the Irish.
That created a bit of a problem, as the Daily Mail noted.
Former Democratic Unionist party leader Arlene Foster said on the eve of his arrival that the US president ‘hates the UK’ – forcing Biden’s senior aide, Amanda Sloat, to insist on Wednesday that he was ‘not anti-British’.
Yet Biden’s reference to the Black and Tans has only served to reinforce the idea of his pro-nationalist attitude.
Biden also managed to mispronounce Kearny’s name. Kearny had been at the White House for St. Patrick’s Day and Biden also mispronounced his name there as well.
Biden is in Ireland to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement that ended most of the violence in Northern Ireland. It’s not clear why Hunter or Joe’s sister, Valerie were there, apart from getting a free trip to Ireland. Chances the Bidens are reimbursing the government for their trip? I wouldn’t bet on it. Of course, Hunter has been playing the role of the handler, so perhaps that qualifies as “official work.”
Hunter Biden has arrived at Áras an Uachtaráin in Ireland ahead of Joe Biden's meeting with the Irish president pic.twitter.com/5mQUBkK0mL
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 13, 2023
Biden met with the Irish President Michael Higgins at Áras an Uachtaráin – the home of the Irish president in Phoenix Park, Dublin.
Joe being Joe, didn’t seem to have absorbed the instructions on where he was supposed to stand, so the Irish president had to help position him.
Why does Biden never know where he's going? pic.twitter.com/uLd069k7ku
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 13, 2023
Biden joked he wasn’t going home, he was staying there. He said the same thing when he visited Canada.
BIDEN in Ireland: "I'm not going home. I'm staying here." pic.twitter.com/sC58jXkP1x
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 13, 2023
Unfortunately for us, he keeps coming back.
Reporters asked Biden about the investigation into the leaked Pentagon documents. Biden responded, “I’m gonna go plant a tree.”
Q: "Do you have an update on the leak investigation?"
BIDEN: *silence* "I'm gonna go plant a tree" pic.twitter.com/CjSCkPf7Id
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 13, 2023
The reporters tried again as he was walking around the property. Biden’s response was bizarre. You can hear the Biden people desperately trying to get the press out of there. But too late, Biden responded.
BIDEN on the leak of classified military documents:
"I'm not concerned about the leak because — I'm concerned that it happened, but there's nothing contemporaneous that I'm aware of that is of great consequence." pic.twitter.com/06PPpAexYd
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 13, 2023
“I’m not concerned about the leak because — I’m concerned that it happened, but there’s nothing contemporaneous that I’m aware of that is of great consequence,” Biden declared. Um, Joe? The leaks showed the exact number of NATO forces in Ukraine. It may have revealed how we were getting intelligence from the Russians. Not to mention a variety of other intelligence. I’d say that that’s very important contemporaneous information. The fact that he doesn’t seem to think so is concerning. Even his National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby stressed how important the information was and that it should not be out there.
But there was one moment that probably said it for all of us. While walking around the property, Biden tried to engage with a big dog. The dog wasn’t having any of it and barked his head off angrily at Biden. The Irish president had to go calm the dog down.
This dog wants nothing to do with Joe Biden pic.twitter.com/gKpTG9qnL0
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 13, 2023
Dogs know.