Monday’s White House House press briefing sparked some confusion on social media after press secretary Jen Psaki referred to president Joe Biden as “Sheriff Joe”.
While speaking to the press about the recent $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that was signed into law by Biden on Monday, Psaki came out with a nickname for the POTUS which raised a few eyebrows.
Psaki said: “And as our executive order is an indication of, the President is very focused — they call him “Sheriff Joe” for a reason — on the implementation of this, making sure we keep waste, fraud, and abuse — we prevent waste, fraud, and abuse, and that we are working directly for hours a day, which is what Mitch Landrieu will be doing, with governors, local officials, and others.”
Landrieu is the former mayor of New Orleans who has been assigned to implement the bill but that’s not the name that we’re here to discuss (just in case you were confused).
Sign up to our new free Indy100 weekly newsletter
Shortly after Psaki called Biden “Sheriff Joe”, memes and confused tweets started to pop up on Twitter, with more than a few comparisons being made to Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the infamous law enforcer from Arizona who ran for Senate and spread conspiracy theories about Barack Obama’s birth certificate.
Which Sheriff Joe did it better? pic.twitter.com/5JZyat7I01
— Zach D Roberts - Photojournalist for hire (@zdroberts) November 15, 2021
I've never heard anyone call him "Sheriff Joe," but I have heard Lyin' Biden. https://t.co/v01qjPxy5U
— Briahna Joy Gray (@briebriejoy) November 15, 2021
Ah, "Sheriff Joe," a name with absolutely zero negative connotations. https://t.co/rCe3WMM3cu
— Eyes on the Right (@EyesOnTheRight) November 15, 2021
In the 270 years Biden has been in government, I never once heard him referred to as Sheriff Joe https://t.co/3GOo6QrhhM
— Gio DeBatta 🍸 (@GDebatta) November 15, 2021
So we’re referring to Joe Biden as “Sheriff Joe” now? Sounds great. There’s a new sheriff in town, and the Trump world criminals are going down 😁
— Palmer Report (@PalmerReport) November 16, 2021
I feel confident saying nobody has ever called Joe Biden “Sheriff Joe” https://t.co/ub0Y86zB4e
— Noah Perkins (@NoahPBPerkins) November 16, 2021
As bizarre as the nickname might sound it does appear to have its origins from Biden’s time as vice president in the Obama administration, although it seems many people have either forgotten about it or that the nickname didn’t catch on outside of Washington DC.
Back in 2009, during the first few months of Obama’s presidency, Biden was placed in charge of supervising stimulus spending and was dubbed by Obama as “Sherrif Joe” while he oversaw the job.
Biden even mentioned this in the Oval Office on Friday when he championed the work that was done back in 2009. The president said: “It was determined that it had less than. 2 per cent waste or fraud. I was — that’s how I became known, the president started calling me ‘Sheriff Joe,’ President Obama at the time, because I made a point every day to stay on top of how exactly the money was spent, what projects were being built, what projects were not being built and how it was functioning.”
