Biden faces backlash for forgetting Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's name and referring to him as "the Black man" in an interview
By lauraharris // 2024-07-24
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President Joe Biden faced a social media backlash for forgetting the name of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and only referring to him simply as "the Black man." During an interview with Black Entertainment Television (BET) on July 17, Biden made the statement while discussing his efforts to appoint Black individuals to prominent positions within his administration. (Related: Biden mixes up names of world leaders during NATO Summit in Washington.) "It's all about treating people with dignity. For example, look at the heat I'm getting because I named a, uh, the secretary of defense, [unintelligible] Black man," Biden said. He then mentioned Supreme Court Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, a Black woman, as another example of his appointees. The ambiguity of whether Biden used "a" or "the" before describing Austin as Black added fuel to the debate. Some social media users on X expressed concerns about Biden's mental acuity. One even argued that the clip was being misconstrued. "I think people are misconstruing this clip. If you listen closely, Biden seems to say 'the secretary of defense, a black man' not 'the black man'; and the context is he's listing his black appointees," the X user posted. But critics accused the president of forgetting Austin's name and simply referring to him as "the black man." "Let’s see how the Biden dead-enders spin this one," one user posted on X. "A POTUS who cannot remember the name of his SecDef — and instead calls him 'the black man' – is not mentally equipped to be in charge of 5,000 nuclear weapons," another one posted.

Pierson in 2020: Biden has a long history of dehumanizing black Americans

This incident adds to a series of verbal gaffes by Biden over the decades, who has faced criticism for previous remarks about black voters and race. In 2007, Biden faced backlash for describing then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama as "the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean." "I mean, you got the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy," Biden was quoted as saying. "I mean, that's a storybook, man." Biden apologized the next day after the incident but insisted that his comments were taken out of context. "I deeply regret any offense my remark in the New York Observer might have caused anyone. That was not my intent and I expressed that to Sen. Obama," he said. "Barack Obama is probably the most exciting candidate that the Democratic or Republican Party has produced at least since I've been around. And he's fresh. He's new. He's smart. He's insightful. And I really regret that some have taken totally out of context my use of the word 'clean.' My mother has an expression: clean as a whistle, sharp as a tack." In 2019, he received backlash for saying "poor kids" were "just as bright and just as talented as White kids." In 2020, Biden told radio host Charlamagne tha God that Black voters who were unsure whether to vote for him were not Black, a remark for which he later apologized. At the time, Trump's top advisers Katrina Pierson and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only Black Republican in the Senate, condemned Biden for the remark. Pierson accused Biden of having a history of dehumanizing comments toward Black Americans, while Scott described Biden’s statement as "negative race-baiting." "Joe Biden has a history of saying dehumanizing things when it comes to black Americans," Pierson said. Head over to JoeBiden.news for more stories related to the declining mental state of the incumbent president. Watch the video below that talks about Dr. Peter McCullough's analysis of Biden's neurological decline. This video is from the Moms On A Mission channel on Brighteon.com.

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