After Biden survived his final State of the Union address Thursday night, many in the media rushed to praise him, suggesting that he had successfully proven he's got the energy and mental acuity to be president.
That's just malarkey. I watched the same speech they did, and his performance made it even clearer that Biden isn't likely to debate Trump this fall.
First of all, we need to recognize that the State of the Union is perhaps the most rehearsed speech ever. Biden spent days preparing and basically took all of Thursday off to prepare. Despite this preparation, he slurred his way through the speech, sounding as if one of the Botox injections in his face had actually gone into his tongue.
But when you look at a few key moments of the speech, it's clear that Biden has a major problem that will likely prevent his handlers from letting him debate.
For one thing, Biden frequently garbled words and coughed.
Biden is unwell pic.twitter.com/RNZUrulgof
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 8, 2024
It wasn't pretty, and it prevented some of his attacks from landing as he would have hoped.
But that wasn't even the root of his problem.
Here's a great example. When he launched into his usual January 6 lies, he said, "We must be honest, the threat to democracy must be defended!"
BIDEN: "The threat to democracy must be defended!" 🤔 pic.twitter.com/llwRwowf4g
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 8, 2024
That's not what he was supposed to say. According to his prepared remarks, the line actually was: "But we must be honest. The threat remains and democracy must be defended."
It was a painful flub, a definitive example that he can't get his lines right even after hours of rehearsing and while reading his script.
It happened more than once, too. Here's another example. While discussing abortion and the fictional effort to pass a national abortion ban, he said, "My God! What freedom else would you take away?"
BIDEN v. TELEPROMPTER: "My God! What freedom else would you take away?" pic.twitter.com/3HHfHHbyLR
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 8, 2024
What Biden was supposed to say was, "My God, what freedoms will you take away next?"
But it was when he attempted a few off-the-cuff zingers that he got in real trouble.
One of the most talked about moments of the speech was when Biden attacked the Supreme Court.
"With all due respect, Justices, women are not without electrical power!" he began. "Excuse me, electoral or political power. You're about to realize just how much you're..." he mumbled before trailing off.
Joe Biden THREATENS the Supreme Court:
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) March 8, 2024
"With all due respect, Justices, Women are not without electrical power! Excuse me, electoral or political power. You're about to realize just how much you're..."#SOTU pic.twitter.com/KkZqS7OqI6
He completely botched the attack. Yes, Democrats clapped and loved it, but the mistake took all the air out of the attack.
It should come as no surprise that this attack wasn't part of the script. It does not appear in the prepared remarks.
Nor was the moment when he finally decided to acknowledge the death of Laken Riley.
“Lincoln — Lincoln Riley,” Biden said. “An innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal. That’s right, but how many of the thousands of people are being killed by legals?"
Biden refers to Laken Riley — a 22-year-old Georgia student murdered by an illegal alien his administration let in — as "Lincoln." pic.twitter.com/oVokg8n2IX
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 8, 2024
Even though Biden was prepared for the moment, his unscripted response hurt him in multiple ways. Not only did he get Laken Riley's name wrong—which was an absolute disgrace— he called Riley's killer an "illegal," not an "undocumented immigrant," which angered many in his party.
Related: SHAME: Biden Botches Name of Laken Riley During State of the Union
Another bizarre, unscripted moment was when Biden said towards the end of his speech, "I'm gonna get in trouble for saying this, but anybody wanna get in Air Force One with me and fly to Toronto, Berlin, Moscow... I mean, excuse me... well, even Moscow, probably."
BIDEN: "I'm gonna get in trouble for saying this, but anybody wanna get in Air Force One with me and fly to Toronto, Berlin, Moscow... I mean, excuse me..." pic.twitter.com/HfH4mQhp1I
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 8, 2024
Again, this really bizarre line was not in his prepared remarks. I'm not sure what he was trying to accomplish with it, and he certainly did himself no favors by mentioning going to Moscow,
Many of Biden's flubs and issues during his speech could be compensated for with his party's cheering and clapping, but Biden won't have that luxury during a debate with Trump. He also won't have a script in front of him to read, which, as the evidence above shows, is a risky proposition for him. He struggled reading his teleprompter for crying out loud. Do you really think he can handle a 90-minute debate completely off the cuff?
He can't. And I suspect his handlers will not allow him to do it.
