Former President Donald Trump was called out for repeated verbal gaffes over the weekend amid right-wing attacks on President Joe Biden over his age.
Trump’s fans went quiet when he confused Biden and former President Barack Obama while claiming that he personally would “have the horrible war between Russia and Ukraine settled” if he wins back the White House in November.
“I know them both very well and we will restore peace through strength. Get that war settled. It’s a bad war. And Putin has so little respect for Obama that he’s starting to throw around the nuclear word,” Trump said during a speech in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Imagine if Biden repeatedly misidentified the guy he’s running against? https://t.co/nR4T88Wz4H
— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) March 3, 2024
Trump, who is 77, has repeatedly mixed up Biden and Obama on the campaign trail amid a series of other mix-ups, including recently confusing former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Republican presidential primary rival Nikki Haley. Trump has dubiously claimed that he mixes up names on purpose.
"When I purposely interposed names, they said I didn't know Pelosi from Nikki," Trump said at a rally in South Carolina last month, making another gaffe.
MediasTouch editor Ron Filipowski posted a montage of 32 clips from Trump’s speeches in Virginia and North Carolina on Saturday in which he “mispronounced words, got confused, mixed up names, forgot names, and babbled insane nonsense.”
Montage of 32 clips from Trump’s two speeches yesterday where he mispronounced words, got confused, mixed up names, forgot names, and babbled insane nonsense. pic.twitter.com/SQeURo2zhd
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) March 3, 2024
MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” played a supercut of Trump’s slips over the weekend and questioned what was happening with the former president.
"What happened there?” asked host Joe Scarborough. “He gets in the middle of sentences, he is reading teleprompters and his mind still blanks out — Nikki Haley for Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama for Joe Biden, and it is just so pathetic and sad. They're going, ‘he's doing it on purpose.’ No, he's not doing any of this stuff on purpose. Take the fact his mind blanks out and he looks lost."
Conservative guest Charlie Sykes expressed alarm that Trump is “less than 48 hours away” from effectively clinching the Republican nomination on Super Tuesday despite his 91 felony charges and “gaffe-filled speeches.”
"If there's any upside here, Joe Biden will be able to say, 'Yeah, I'm old, I'm stiff when I walk, but this guy is also old and crazy – he's dangerous, he's incoherent,'" Sykes said. "He needs to make that point. The other maybe upside is, you know, now that there's no way of denying it'll be Donald Trump again, it'll focus the mind… I think Democrats need to stop the bedwetting, but they need to get out of the bed and freak out a little bit because the reality is, maybe this is what it'll take for them to realize this guy could become president of the United States.”
CBS News anchor Margaret Brennan played a clip of Trump confusing Biden and Obama on Sunday’s “Face the Nation” and pressed Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, over his endorsement of the former president.
“He seemed there to confuse Biden for Obama. He also suggested that there were U.S. troops serving in Ukraine. Are you comfortable about his mental fitness?” she asked.
“Compared to the current president?” Sullivan replied. “One hundred ten percent. And as your polling shows, I think the American people have real concerns where President Biden is with regard to his fitness for office, particularly his mental acuity. And relative to President Biden — or relative to former President Trump — I don’t even think it’s a close call when you see the two in action.”
Brenan noted that Trump also appeared confused about troops in Ukraine.
“To be clear, there are no US troops serving on the battlefield in Ukraine,” Brennan said. “There are military advisors. But there aren’t troops, correct?”
Sullivan dodged the question, responding: “I would go back to who is demonstrating more mental fitness to be the president and I don’t even think it’s a close call between President Trump and President Biden right now.”
