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At Thursday night’s Democratic debate, Joe Biden dissed Elizabeth Warren’s selfies. He then pointed out all the people whom he claims have contacted him with troubles of their own, pleading for his help. And then he began stuttering. It was an awkward moment, to say the least.
Biden’s stuttering on the word “I” certainly caught my attention, but as he finished that verbal struggle with “I can’t talk, what do I do?” I realized that Joe was making a dramatic demonstration of a young kid stuttering. I know this because I work as a speech pathologist, and while I saw this as yet another cringe-worthy Biden moment, I found his imitation to be spot on.
Credit: Miguel Pimental/flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0.
The reason why Biden imitated stuttering so well is because he suffered from that same disorder as a child. In fact, he still struggles with it today.
In 2011, Biden wrote in People magazine:
“I never had professional therapy, but a couple of nuns taught me to put a cadence to my speaking, and that’s why I spent so much time reading poetry – Emerson and Yeats. But even in my small, boys’ prep school, I got nailed in Latin class with the nickname Joe Impedimenta. You get so desperate, you’re so embarrassed.”
Last month, Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page wondered if some of Biden’s gaffes could be related to stuttering, and Page knows because he has the same problem. He pointed out that time when Biden seemed to forget President Obama’s name, substituting “my boss” instead:
“But his “my boss” moment was different. It sounded to me like a familiar stutterer’s dodge: When you bump up against a word that’s not going to let you proceed without a struggle, you just switch to another word.”
John Hendrickson at The Atlantic doesn’t just wonder if Biden still stutters — he also understands. A stutterer himself, Hendrickson recently interviewed Biden, describing how the former veep wanted to avoid the issue:
“We’ve been tiptoeing toward it for 45 minutes, and so far, every time he seems close, he backs away, or leads us in a new direction. There are competing theories in the press, but Joe Biden has kept mum on the subject. I want to hear him explain it. I ask him to walk me through the night he appeared to lose control of his words onstage.”
“I—um—I don’t remember,” Biden says. His voice has that familiar shake, the creak and the croak. “I’d have to see it. I-I-I don’t remember.”
That article caused conservative writer Ramesh Ponnuru at National Review to take notice:
“The Atlantic reports. I had no idea, but it helps explain some of his verbal tics.”
Rod Dreher at The American Conservative also didn’t know that Biden is a stutterer. Dreher doesn’t stutter but has a relative who does (the disorder can run in families). He wrote about watching Biden’s debate performance:
“Had any of the other candidates on stage tonight gotten hung up on a word like Biden did, I would have been puzzled by it, but I wouldn’t have jumped to conclusions about a “senior moment.” But it fit a narrative, so I went there, at least in my mind. I didn’t make fun of Biden, to be clear, but I did think, “There he goes again!”
Unfortunately, former White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders did jump to conclusions on Twitter, tweeting this:
“I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I hhhave absolutely no idea what Biden is talking about. #DemDebate.”
Biden’s account fired back:
“I’ve worked my whole life to overcome a stutter. And it’s my great honor to mentor kids who have experienced the same. It’s called empathy. Look it up.”
To her credit, Sanders deleted her comments and issued a full-bore apology:
“I actually didn’t know that about you and that is commendable. I apologize and should have made my point respectfully.”
Good on Sarah Sanders for actually apologizing. She knows about cruel public ridicule — liberal media and the Twitter cancel mob have been hunting her scalp ever since she entered Trump’s administration. Now she’s out of the administration and they’re still gunning for her.
Twitter is indeed a vile, dark place, isn’t it? Especially when people use their political biases to comment on physical conditions — ask Rosie O’Donnell how her autism “diagnosis” of Barron Trump worked out.
However, Joe Biden’s stuttering disorder does not eliminate other worries about his fitness for office. In fact, Barack Obama’s former physician recently expressed concerns about Biden’s health, even in the wake of Biden’s current physician calling him a “healthy, vigorous 77-year-old.”
Pointing out Biden’s current treatment for irregular heart beat, and his history of two aneurysms, Dr. David Scheiner pushed back on the “healthy guy” meme:
“’Outstanding health’? With that history, I wouldn’t call it outstanding health.”
“He has a lot of issues that are just sort of sitting there.”
Indeed he does. And while Biden’s stuttering shouldn’t be ridiculed — his overcoming the devastations of that sort of communication disorder is really quite commendable — it doesn’t excuse the fact that he is not as healthy as his campaign team claims.
Featured image: Gage Skidmore/flickr/cropped/CC BY-SA 2.0.
GWB says: Between his … gaffes, and Nancy’s occasional verbal incontinence, I’d have to say…
1) These people should be receiving care in a nursing home, or
2) The quantum positronics in these alien androids is breaking down.
Either way, they should NOT be in positions of authority over American citizens.
MortMain says: The star-studded progressive team… full of seniors… or something else….
Cameron says: “Good on Sarah Sanders for actually apologizing.”
Going to disagree with you a bit. Apologizing to those cretins masquerading as people is a stupid idea because it’s never accepted. She owes him nothing.
Orangemanverybad says: Joe has potato salad in his skull, and that why he says so many incoherent things. They are going to use his “disability” as a ruse to prevent people from saying he has potato salad in his skull. How Joe got potato salad in his skull I do not know, but you know who else stuttered? Cornpop stuttered, but that’s how Joe was able to bond with him, over their mutual disability. Later, Joe was able to pass a bill to help stuttering bad dudes. Joe even got Cornpop a job at MBNA.
[…] a speech off a teleprompter is no surprise (though he routinely mangles words while talking – stutter or not, you make the call). The real problems arise when Biden is forced to talk off the cuff. Hold […]
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