Joe Biden went to Ponce, Puerto Rico on Monday to survey the damage from Hurricane Fiona to the area. He’s next supposed to go to Florida to survey the damage from Hurricane Ian.
As we reported, while he was there, he made some bizarre remarks that included pandering to the people about his “Puerto Rican” roots, saying he was “Puerto Rican politically.” He claimed he had been to Puerto Rico before because it was part of the “Third Circuit.” But Puerto Rico is part of the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. So it was unclear what the heck he was talking about. But he barely did any lawyering before he became a senator and that wouldn’t make you Puerto Rican anyway if you visited the area a few times, so even this pandering effort was a big stretch. It’s so maddening that he does this pandering thing, trying to identify with the people wherever he goes rather than just being honest and saying whatever he is there to say — in this case to talk about aid to the region in the wake of the flooding from the hurricane. That’s what people want to hear, not pandering.
But that wasn’t the only weirdness in his visit. As we’ve seen with a lot of his recent remarks, he continued to say and do strange things.
When he came out to make his remarks in Ponce, he was walking with everyone else when suddenly he just seemed to stop as everyone else including his wife, Jill, continued walking, as Joe stared at the ground, rolling up his sleeves. It looked very odd like he had no idea where he was for a second.
Everything okay, Big Guy? pic.twitter.com/AZZFw1epwo
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 3, 2022
I thought maybe Biden might have been looking for his mark on the ground, that that might explain the weird action. As I previously noted, on at least one prior occasion — at the Rosh Hashanah celebration at the White House — he seemed to be looking for a mark where to stand. What does it say when they have to mark off for him where to stand? While you might have actors do that, I’ve never seen that for politicians for simple remarks. If they’re doing that, it shows to what lengths they are trying to control his movements. That came after him wandering off multiple times. But when I looked at a video that showed the ground, I didn’t see anything, so there wasn’t even that excuse. He was just weirdly staring at the ground. There wasn’t anything there, that I could see, so I have no idea what he was staring at. You can also see the FEMA director Deanna Criswell staring at him as she walks by (she’s the blond in the collared shirt) wondering what the heck he’s doing. She was there when he wandered off at the FEMA headquarters.
Biden also weirdly sped up his remarks in a couple of places and looked over his shoulder as he was delivering them. He mentioned a storm approaching when he began, but then he droned on and on for several minutes without getting to the point of the aid that he was delivering. Suddenly, he then started trying to talk at light speed.
Joe Biden: "I'm ready to deploy and expedite more resources from the department of energy and other federal agencies, not just –I don't usually talk this fast."
*looks behind and above him*
"It looks like it's moving quickly." pic.twitter.com/8PAGfROuma
— Media Research Center (@theMRC) October 3, 2022
He then slowed on and droned on again. Then he sped up again.
He did it again, "I usually don't quite talk this fast, but it looks like – " then looks up behind him pic.twitter.com/N3oGXqsPxn
— Media Research Center (@theMRC) October 3, 2022
If you think a storm is coming you cut your remarks short. You don’t drone on, speed up, drone on, speed up. Just so weird.
