President Joe Biden confused guests at an Arizona campaign event Tuesday night when he wandered off stage to join a baby in the crowd and pull faces with his young fan.
The octogenarian spied the youngster while his campaign manager introduced him at a Mexican diner in Phoenix, the New York Post reports.
“Well folks, I have to tell you straight up… I like you all, but I couldn’t resist that baby,” he proudly regaled the audience, which appeared to be only a few dozen people.
Biden’s campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez had been in front of the crowd for around a minute before Biden became distracted by the child and walked off, the outlet’s report details.
President Joe Biden walks into the crowd at a campaign event at El Portal restaurant Tuesday, March 19, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
He pulled a face at the baby before meandering off the stage, drawing laughs from onlookers as Rodriguez continued her remarks.
The president talked up the child and their mother and reportedly asked “how old” the infant was, while repeatedly pulling faces at the crowd and trying to engage the baby with laughter.
The event in the battleground state was meant to help Biden’s popularity with Hispanic voters, who supported him before his 2020 election win.
Biden pauses to engage with a baby at El Portal restaurant Tuesday, March 19, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Biden, who has seven grandchildren – though he rarely acknowledges the existence of first son Hunter Biden’s out-of-wedlock child with former stripper Lunden Roberts – has previously declared he likes “babies better than people.”
Just last year the president playfully nibbled on the shoulder of a little girl who recoiled as Biden attempted to plant a kiss on her forehead.
