No wonder President Biden needs a cheat sheet when answering questions from adults.
The 80-year-old commander-in-chief had a hard time remembering his recent state visit to Ireland on Thursday when he was questioned by children during a Take Your Child to Work event at the White House. “The last country I traveled to, I’m trying to think of the last one I was in,” Biden told the sons of the administrative staff and members of the media.
“So far I have been and met 89 heads of state. So, uh, trying to think of where was the last place I was; It’s hard to keep track of.”
“Ireland,” one boy yelled, joking about the president’s memory.
“Yes, you are right, Ireland. That’s where it was,” he said good-naturedly.
“How do you know?”
Biden, with the help of first son Hunter, also fielded questions from US embassy workers’ children while in Ireland, but did not host formal press conferences, frustrating members of the White House press corps. Ireland’s swap was one of the few Thursdays that highlighted the president’s frequent memory lapses, most notably forgetting the death of Congresswoman Jackie Walorski and mentioning the Indiana Republican’s name at an event last September.
Another guy at the White House event asked Biden, “Do you watch the Stanley Cup playoffs, and if you do, do you have a favorite team?”
“I did, and I do: the Philadelphia Flyers,” the president replied, seemingly unaware that the team didn’t make it to the tournament this year. The commanding officer also rattled off the names of her grandchildren Naomi, 29, Finnegan, 23, Maisy, 22, Natalie, 18, Robert Hunter Biden II, 17, and Beau Jr., 2, but did not mention Navy Joan. Roberts, the often unacknowledged 4-year-old daughter of Hunter and Lunden Roberts, a former stripper.
“And guess what? They are crazy about me because I pay them a lot of attention,” Biden said, eliciting a few laughs from the crowd of fathers and sons present.
An Arkansas judge ruled Monday that Hunter, 53, who has stayed out of proceedings in a child support case involving his beloved son with Lunden, must attend all future court hearings. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) suggested last week that Hunter’s foreign affairs money, which has benefited other members of the first family, may have gone to some of the president’s nieces and nephews.
Roberts sued Hunter for child support, but deliberations were delayed by questions about the financial records of his abandoned laptop. A court-ordered DNA test in November 2019 proved that Hunter was the father of Navy.
