“A lot of times we say, 'Don't take questions,’” Psaki said. Biden’s team tries to avoid those danger zones by urging him not to engage with reporters who shout questions during his public appearances, Psaki divulged in a podcast this month. There are fewer public opportunities for him to make the kind of ad-lib remarks that have gotten him in trouble, Frantzich said. 'Don't take questions'Īnother possible contributing factor to Biden’s message discipline: Access to him is more limited. Joe Biden has joked about being "a gaffe machine," but he is under pressure as president to choose his words carefully.
‘It can’t just be a coincidence’: Biden uses artwork to underscore his message to America That’s a sobering task, Stokes said, and probably a constant reminder to Biden’s staff, his Cabinet, everyone around him – even Biden himself – that “there isn’t room for loose talk, there’s not room for mistakes.” It’s his job to kind of pull us back from the abyss.” “The Biden people, the Democrats know that. “A big part of our country is under the spell of Donald Trump, and that’s a dangerous place,” Stokes said.
“And he’s doing it in line with the authenticity and values that were critical to him winning this office.”įor Biden and the country, the stakes are a lot higher and dictate that he choose his words carefully, said Susan Stokes, director of the University of Chicago's Center on Democracy. “Those are the causes he’s putting his voice behind,” Bates said. “He has realized in the past how his gaffes have hurt him, and (as president), he has been very cognizant of that fact,” he said.Īsked how Biden's advisers keep him on message, White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said the president is "laser-focused" on the challenges he inherited upon taking office, such as rebuilding the economy and making the government work again. Now that he’s president, Biden seems to understand that “the microphone is always on and whatever he says is going to be captured,” Frantzich said. “This is a big f-ing deal!” Biden exclaimed.ĭuring last year’s presidential campaign, Biden touched off a mini-controversy when he told popular African American radio host Charlamagne Tha God that if a Black person was having trouble choosing between him or Donald Trump, “then you ain’t Black.” Biden conceded that he “shouldn’t have been such a wise guy.” 'Articulate and bright and clean'Īt a Democratic presidential debate in 2007, Biden paid Barack Obama the dubious compliment of being “articulate and bright and clean." Obama became the nation's first Black president, and Biden served as his vice president.Īt the White House in 2010, Vice President Biden was caught on a hot mic congratulating Obama, who had signed his signature health care plan into law. It was his first visit to the state since announcing that he was seeking the Democratic nomination for president. Joe Biden speaks to guests during a presidential campaign event April 30, 2019, at the Grand River Center in Dubuque, Iowa. “Words matter,” Frantzich said, “and I think he has learned that lesson.”īiden still speaks at times in the same tortured syntax that causes confused listeners to shake their heads and ask, “Huh?” He still loses his train of thought mid-sentence or sometimes starts off on one topic and ends up on another.īut the phonetic flubs that have sent headline writers and his communication team into a frenzy, albeit for different reasons, have been mostly missing during his nascent presidency.
Naval Academy and author of a book about political candidates’ verbal stumbles. Lately, the gaffe machine seems to have gone mostly silent.īiden, whose verbal missteps and chronic foot-in-mouth disease have been the stuff of legend for much of his political career, has stayed surprisingly on message since moving into the Oval Office in late January.Īs president, not only is Biden careful in what he says and how he says it, “he does exceptionally well in terms of getting out his message,” said Stephen Frantzich, a retired political science professor at the U.S. WASHINGTON – Joe Biden was four months away from declaring his candidacy for president when an interviewer asked him about his well-documented history of saying precisely the wrong thing at precisely the wrong time – a potentially fatal flaw in a protracted presidential race. The ‘gaffe machine’ gets a tuneup: Joe Biden stays surprisingly on message as president
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