President Joe Biden relied on a list supplied by his staff when calling on reporters during his first press conference in eight months.
His shocking announcement critically undermined his defense against accusations that staff run the White House, stage managing Biden and limiting his exposure to unscripted events and meetings.
“With that, I’ll take your questions. I’ve been given a list of people to call on here,” Biden said at the end of his prepared remarks, which he mumbled through despite reading from a teleprompter.
Biden paused to check his list, reading out “Reuters, Jeff Mason.”
While answering the first question, Biden committed another gaffe, referring to his Vice President, Kamala Harris, as “Vice President Trump.”
He continued to go down the list of reporters he had been provided, giving seemingly rehearsed answers that nonetheless did not inspire confidence due to long pauses and several inaudible mumbles.
“I love my staff, but they add things,” he replied to the question if he could handle the workload of the job, continuing, “I’m catching hell from my wife.”
Biden was over 45 minutes late to his press conference, despite delaying it at least twice during the hours beforehand.
Bradley Jaye is a Capitol Hill Correspondent for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter at @BradleyAJaye.
