Jill and Joe Biden pictured during the Christmas Eve presidential tradition
(Picture: Getty Images)Joe Biden fielded phone-calls from excited children as part of a presidential Christmas tradition - but all didn’t go to plan.
The president and First Lady were speaking to families around the country who had called into the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) hotline on Christmas Eve, for an ‘update’ on Santa Claus’ location.
Unfortunately, one phone-call ended with the child’s father saying to the president ‘Let’s go Brandon’ - a right-wing euphemism for ‘f*** Joe Biden’.
Somewhat surprisingly, Mr Biden responded: “Let’s go Brandon, I agree.”
Some thought he’d understood the reference and was attempting to cooly play it off, however NBC News said that he “did not appear to recognize” the phrase’s connotations.
Biden agrees Let’s Go Brandon ……… pic.twitter.com/cUnITccUck
— Luke Rudkowski (@Lukewearechange) December 24, 2021
Earlier this year, a video from a NASCAR race at Alabama’s Talladega Superspeedway went viral on social media after a reporter claimed the crowd were chanting ‘Let’s go Brandon!’ when they were actually shouting ‘F*** Joe Biden.’
Since then, it’s become a constant refrain in right-wing circles - to such an extent that the driver who inadvertently inspired the meme, Brandon Brown, said this week that he regretted that it had become an anti-Biden slogan.
When asked in early November what Biden thought of the phrase, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said: “I don’t think he spends much time focused on it or thinking about it.”
After the latest call went viral on Twitter, a bunch of people from MAGA-land piled in, saying that Biden’s response heralded the fall of civilization:
If some random guy from Oregon can trick Joe Biden into saying "Let's go Brandon, I agree"
— Vince Langman (@LangmanVince) December 24, 2021
Imagine what Vladimir Putin can do to this imbecile
How long before the FBI raids the house of the dad who tricked Biden into saying “Let’s Go Brandon”?
— Jewish Deplorable (@TrumpJew2) December 24, 2021
I’ve watched this 50 times. It’s not just that Biden reflexively says “Let’s go Brandon”, it’s that he says “I agree.” What does he agree with? Does he know what he said? What it means? Does he want to go fuck himself?
— Dave Rubin (@RubinReport) December 24, 2021
And there’s Dr. Jill, still refusing to diagnose him…
But others, rightly, pointed out that it was a bizarrely mean and immature thing to do during a Christmas phone-call between the president and your child:
Jesus would be so impressed with the guy saying "Let's go Brandon" to Joe Biden. SMH.
— Brian O'Sullivan (@osullivanauthor) December 24, 2021
The right is so far from the teachings of Jesus, it's comical they still try to co-opt him.
Let's go Brandon is so sad. If you wanna say fuck Joe Biden be an adult and say it, we're not in 6th grade anymore, your teacher's not gonna yell at you
— Lucas V. Suter🎄☃️🎅🏻 (@WelfareStateFan) December 24, 2021
Part of Biden’s appeal is that he doesn’t care about online brain worms nonsense like this https://t.co/N3WCfHfqCq
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 24, 2021
— Policywonk🐵 (@jiminyjobbers55) December 24, 2021
Fox News when someone says FU to a Democratic president: 😁😊🎄
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 24, 2021
Fox News had this happened to Trump: pic.twitter.com/CZiYSANEHo https://t.co/LWkAUsoyNC
Meanwhile Ted Cruz, never willing to pass up an opportunity to insert himself into the latest Twitter drama for some attention, asked people to text the word ‘Brandon’ to his marketing number to be added to his mailing list:
Text BRANDON to 24005 https://t.co/ckvqjBpqXr
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) December 24, 2021
“Are you still a believer in Santa?” Trump said to the child, “because at 7, it’s marginal, right?”
Mr Trump, who did not appear to realise that he’d told a child that Santa Claus did not exist, laughed to himself for a moment before concluding with: “Well, you just enjoy yourself”.
For more than 60 years, NORAD has told children that it is tracking Santa, and in recent years launched a website with the latest data on the big man’s location.
