Saturday 24 September 2022 03:26 AM 'She was 12 and I was 30' Biden says as he points at woman during teachers ... trends now
President Joe Biden started a Democratic National Committee speech with a teachers union on Friday with eye-opening remarks.
Pointing to a member of the crowd at the National Education Association, he said: 'You gotta say hi to me. We go back a long way. She was 12, I was 30.'
The audience laughed before he said: 'This woman helped me get a lot done'.
Biden did not acknowledge how he knew the woman or what she helped him do, but the remark caught viewers off guard.
Later in the remarks he said: 'I mean this from the bottom of my heart. Those of you who know me, no one ever doubts I mean what I say, the problem is I sometimes say all that I mean.'
At the speech, the audience laughed at the remark, but it's a comment that has attained a lot of social media attention, particularly in reference to the 'She was 12, I was 30' part
President Joe Biden started a Democratic National Committee speech with a teachers union on Friday with eye-opening remarks. Pointing to a member of the crowd at the National Education Association, he said: 'You gotta say hi to me. We go back a long way. She was 12, I was 30'
U.S. President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden attend a performance by British rocker Elton John at the White House in Washington, DC
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden watch as Elton John performs on the South Lawn of the White House
ELton John is calling the show 'A Night When Hope and History Rhyme,' a reference to a poem by Irishman Seamus Heaney that President Joe Biden often quotes
Elton John is pictured on the White House lawn, providing the exclusive venue for the filming of a TV special
President Joe Biden presents Elton John with the National Humanities Medal after a concert on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington
British singer Elton John (2L) and his husband David Furnish (L) stand on stage with Biden
Elton John reacts after being awarded the National Humanities Medal by Joe Biden
Elton John was deeply emotional after being awarded the National Humanities Medal by U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House in Washington
It was the start of speech in Washington D.C. where he attacked MAGA Republicans and called GOP leader Kevin McCarthy's 'Commitment to America' policy plan 'thin'.
The president also promised to veto a Republican abortion ban if it arrived at his desk and said the midterms are a choice between 'hope, unity, optimism' and 'division, fear, darkness'.
He celebrated gas prices being down $1.30 a gallon and re-upped his attacks on the use of assault weapons.
'What in God's name do you need an assault weapon for? It's an assault weapon designed to kill people, to defend America, to defend people.'
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden are seen holding hands
First lady Jill Biden speaks before President Joe Biden on the South Lawn of the White House
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks at a Democratic National Committee event at the National Education Association headquarters in Washington
The White House said the event 'will celebrate the unifying and healing power of music, commend the life and work of Sir Elton John, and honor the everyday history-makers in the audience.'
British rocker Elton John performs at the White House on Friday night
Elton John said that he'd played in some beautiful venues, but the stage in front of the White House, beneath a massive tent on a perfect autumn night, was 'probably the icing on the cake'
'After opposing and obstructing everything we tried to do to stop progress for the last two years, the House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy went to Pennsylvania and unveiled what he calls a 'Commitment to America,'' Biden said. 'That's a thin series of policy goals with limited amount of detail that he says Republicans are going to pursue if they regain control of the Congress.'
'Over the course of nearly an hour, here are a few of the things we didn't hear,' Biden continued. 'We didn't hear him mention the right to choose. We didn't hear him mention Medicare. We didn't hear him mention Social Security.'
Biden also mocked McCarthy for suggesting he would 'restore faith in elections'.
'With a straight face, Kevin McCarthy says that MAGA Republicans are going to restore faith in our elections. As we say in my faith, 'Bless me father for I have sinned,'' he told the crowd.
What McCarthy did talk about, Biden said, was preserving Constitutional freedom.
'That sounds great. I'm for doing that as well, we all are,' the president said. 'But look at what they've actually done.'
'The MAGA Republicans just cheered and embraced the first Supreme Court decision in our entire history, first one in our entire history, that just didn't fail to preserve a constitutional freedom, it actually took away a fundamental right that had been granted by the same court to so many Americans - the constitutional right to choose,' Biden pointed out.
Biden also called out Republicans who claim to support law enforcement but did not condemn the January 6 Capitol riot.
'You can't be pro-law enforcement and pro-insurrection,' Biden said. 'You can't claim to be a party of law and order and call the people who attacked the police on January 6 patriots.'
Later in the remarks he said: 'I mean this from the bottom of my heart. Those of you who know me, no one ever doubts I mean what I say, the problem is I sometimes say all that I mean
Republicans of all stripes have embraced the Dobbs decision - which overturned the 1973 landmark case Roe v. Wade and threw abortion laws back to the states.
There's some debate among Republicans - especially after GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham introduced a nationwide 15-week ban bill - of whether to attempt to outlaw abortion at a federal level or keep it at the state level.
'If they win Congress, I will veto it,' Biden said of the Graham abortion ban bill.
McCarthy's Commitment to America does mention preserving the rights of the unborn, but during his appearance with other GOP lawmakers in Monongahela, they didn't put their abortion stance
