It is certainly not uncommon for politicians to use prompts or cue cards. But President Joe Biden has once again called his competency into question when he accidentally revealed cue cards with simple instructions such as “walk in,” “sit down,” and “say hello.”
This all happened last week when Biden was addressing a gathering in the Roosevelt Room of state governors about a partnership with 11 states to speed up the growth of the offshore wind industry and its domestic supply chain in the US.
The photographer documenting the event captured one of the documents Biden used during the meeting, and it was a cue card titled “The President” with the title of the event and bullet-pointed instructions seemingly for Biden – some of which were quite simplistic like you would tell a child or someone with cognitive impairment.
According to the leaked photo, the full list of bulleted instructions reads:
“YOU enter the Roosevelt Room and say hello to participants.”
“YOU take YOUR seat. “
“Press enters.”
“YOU give brief comments” — this note was partially blocked by Biden’s finger.
“Press departs.”
“YOU ask Liz Shuler, President, AFL-CIO, a question. Note: Liz is joining virtually.”
“YOU thank participants.”
“YOU depart.”
It’s not unusual for a leader’s press team to produce a memorandum of events, including instructions for the speaker.
But the simplicity of the instructions — which included “YOU depart” at the end — called Biden’s mental competency into question among Biden’s political opponents, including Stephen Miller, a far-right former presidential advisor.
Miller tweeted, in reference to the card, “There need to be emergency hearings next year on the 25th amendment.” The 25th Amendment relates to the removal of a president who is incapacitated.
As far as the actual content of the meeting at hand, Biden stuck with his oft-repeated stance connecting renewable energy to the economy: “When I think ‘climate,’ when I think ‘environment,’ I think ‘jobs,'” he said.