Thirteen Bizarre Quotes from Joe Biden’s CNN Town Hall in Cincinnati

Joe Biden town hall 2 (Saul Loeb / AFP / Getty)
Saul Loeb / AFP / Getty

President Joe Biden participated in a CNN town hall in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Wednesday evening, and said several things that were so strange that even his CNN fans were disappointed.

Here are the top 13 bizarre quotes (via Cincinnati.com):

1. “This is Not a Pandemic.” Asked whether the coronavirus is in “retreat,” Biden cited the importance of vaccinations:

So it’s gigantically important that you act like — we all act like Americans who care about our fellow Americans to get — there’s legitimate questions people can ask that they worry about getting vaccinated.

But the question should be asked, answered, and people should get vaccinated. But this is not a pandemic. We’ve made sure that since I got in office, we’ve inoculated over 160 million people, 85 percent of people over the age of 50.

2. “Whether Or Not We Should Be in a Position Where You Are.” Biden seemed to lose his train of thought as he tried to address concerns that coronavirus vaccines were still only operating under temporary approval:

And the question is whether or not we should be in a position where you are — why can’t the experts say we know that this virus is, in fact — is going to be — or, excuse me — we know why all the drugs approved are not temporarily approved, but permanently approved. That’s underway, too. I expect that to occur quickly.

3. “It’s Been Over Two Decades.” Biden pushed back against the idea that the vaccines had been developed quickly — a claim he made repeatedly during the campaign, when he warned that they were being rushed. He tried to argue that the technology, at least, behind the COVID vaccines had been in development for over two decades, though the virus is new:

Look, for example, everybody talks about how, you know, this virus came, this — the drugs that are designed to kill the virus came along so quickly. They’ve been working on it for two decades. There’s nothing quick about this. It’s been over two decades.

4. “You’re Not Going to Get COVID If You Have These Vaccinations.” Biden’s statement was “misinformation.” As Breitbart News (and CNN) noted, a small number of vaccinated people have contracted the virus, albeit less severely:

But, again, one last thing. We don’t talk enough to you about this, I don’t think. One last thing that’s really important is, we’re not in the position where we think that any virus, including the Delta virus, which is much more transmissible and more deadly in terms of unvaccinated people, the — the various shots that people are getting now cover that. You’re OK. You’re not going to — you’re not going to get COVID if you have these vaccinations.

5. “They Were Almost Like Guinea Pigs.” In answering a question about vaccine hesitancy in the black community, Biden botched the history of the Tuskegee experiment, which began before the Second World War and continued thereafter. The problem with the study was not the fact that an experiment was run — clinical trials with human subjects are common, subject to ethical constraints — but that the participants were lied to and were denied medical treatment.

You know, you go back just to — even World War II, African-Americans were used as experimental — they were almost like guinea pigs in terms of — they were — anyway, it — and your mom and dad remember that and your grandparents remember that.

6. “Man on the Moon.” Biden was trying to describe trusted sources of information on the coronavirus vaccine:

Think of the people, if your kid wanted to find out whether or not there were — there’s a man on the moon or whatever, you know, something, or, you know, whether those aliens are here or not, you know, who are the people they talk to beyond the kids who love talking about it?

7. “Portman Is a Congressman.” Biden tried to name-check Senator Rob Portman (R-OH), who was working on an infrastructure deal, but had to be reminded by CNN’s Don Lemon that Portland is a member of the Senate, not the House.

For example, if we get this bill done that I’ve been — put together a long time ago — and by the way, I want to say, I’m in his territory. You know, there’s — Portman is a good man. Portman is a congressman from this area. I talked to him before I — and I really mean it. He’s a decent, honorable man. And he and I are working on trying to get this infrastructure bill passed.

8. “I Don’t Care If You Think I’m Satan Reincarnated … Hiding People and Sucking the Blood of Children.” Biden was trying to argue that the Capitol riot of January 6 was important. (He was given a false prompt by CNN’s Lemon, who claimed that it was “the biggest attack on our Capitol in 200 years,” which is incorrect). Biden said:

No, I mean it. I’m not being facetious. Democrats and Republicans. I don’t care if you think I’m Satan reincarnated. The fact is, you can’t look at that television and say nothing happened on the 6th. You can’t listen to people who say this was a peaceful march. No, I’m serious. Think about it. Think of the things being said. I’ve been through the other end of this when the Democrats 35 years ago were way off to the other side. Think about it.

But some of the stuff — I mean, Qanon, the idea that the Democrats or that Biden is hiding people and sucking the blood of children and — no, I’m serious. That’s — now you may not like me, and that’s your right.

8. “I’m Not Joking.” Biden repeatedly reassured his audience he was not “joking” or being “facetious,” though it was not clear why he felt he had to do so. In talking about the governing model of China and Russia, for example, he said:

I talked to Xi Jinping in China, who I know well. We don’t agree on a lot of things. He’s a bright and really tough guy. He truly believes that the 21st century will be determined by oligarchs, by — not a joke — democracies cannot function in the 21st century, the argument is, because things are moving so rapidly, so, so rapidly that you can’t pull together a nation that is divided to get a consensus on acting quickly. So autocrats, autocracies.

I had a long meeting with Putin, and I continued — I know him well. These guys actually are betting — I’m not joking — on autocracies. Democracy has to stand up and demonstrate that it can get something done. It’s not just important that we are — no, I really mean it.

10. “Your Business … Is Really Going to Be in a Bind.” Asked by a restaurateur what to do about labor shortages, Biden told him that his employees had probably left to seek better opportunities, providing little solace to the man:

But all kidding aside, I think it really is a matter of people deciding now that they have opportunities to do other things and there’s a shortage of employees. People are looking to make more money and to bargain. And so I think your business and the tourist business is really going to be in a bind for a little while.

11. “Jim Crow on Steroids.” After telling the audience that he could unify America, Biden accused Republicans of “Jim Crow” racism because of efforts to pass laws to improve ballot integrity, and questions about the 2020 election:

We have election officials across the board that they’re deciding to push out of the way and if, in fact, tomorrow — let’s say we’re running last time, and these laws have been in effect, that are — these changes, in Georgia, the Georgia’s legislature, oh, Biden won by multiple thousand votes, they could say, “We don’t think it was legit,” and the state legislature votes, “We’re going to send electors up to Congress to vote for Trump, not Biden.” That’s never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever been tried before. This is Jim Crow on steroids, what we’re talking about.

12. “I’m So Damn Proud of My Son.” Biden threw in a reference to Hunter Biden, who is now under FBI investigation over his finances, and is facing scrutiny for lucrative art sales that pose severe ethical dilemmas for the White House”

I’m so damn proud of my son. My son just wrote a book about how he overcame being addicted, and he did it, and he’s doing it, and he is in good shape, thank God.

13. “Mr. President, You’ve Been the Big Guy for Six Months Now in the White House.” That quote was from Lemon, not Biden, who inadvertently used the same term — “big guy” — that Hunter Biden used when allegedly arranging a 10% stake for his father in a failed joint venture in 2017 with a firm connected to the Chinese government.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

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