Donald Trump has mocked Biden in recent weeks by falsely claiming that the president stutters during speeches, and has occasionally parodied his purported stutter, but Biden has long criticized his personal stuttering. They rely on the highlights of their political biographies and use them to sell themselves. He himself has been selected as a mercy candidate for a presidential rematch in 2024.
The election could ultimately be decided by a wide range of issues, including the economy, immigration, abortion and democracy. But the early stages were also notable for discussing a more personal topic, Biden's stutter, in a vulgar and subtle manner. Such exchanges reflect the candidates' vastly different views on disability and struggle, and their role in a divided political culture that earns more ridicule than acceptance.
“We're not even talking about what a 'president' is anymore,” said Ted Kaufman, a longtime Biden confidant and friend. “But if you look at Joe Biden's response and Trump's response, one is presidential and the other is not.”
He insisted Trump's attacks didn't apply to Biden, saying, “He's been through worse than that in his life,” and that the stutter highlights a core part of the president's past. “This is an example of how people overcame things.”
Mr. Trump's aides insist that Mr. Trump was mocking Mr. Biden's competence, not his stuttering. “President Trump never made fun of Joe Biden's speech impediment,” said adviser Jason Miller. “He just blamed the fact that Biden has a cognitive impairment and a low IQ.”
There is no evidence that Mr. Biden is cognitively impaired, and Mr. Miller declined to say how his claims squared with Mr. Trump's, as he told the crowd after Mr. Biden's speech earlier this year: He stammered throughout. ”
Mr. Trump most recently brought up Mr. Biden's stutter in the campaign after the March 7 State of the Union address, in which Mr. Biden attacked Mr. Trump in harsh language. At a rally in Georgia, Trump sarcastically asked whether Biden would “bring the country together.” Biden never used the word in his speech and said the word “together” seven times without stuttering.
Mr. Biden responded by embracing the obstacles he fought to overcome as a child and continues to strive to overcome. Biden met with Harry Abramson in Wisconsin last week. The boy wrote to Biden asking how he overcame his stutter, adding that if he could overcome his stutter, maybe he could someday too. president.
“You can do whatever you want,” Biden told Harry, according to a video released by his campaign.
Biden then sent a clip of the exchange from his personal X account, writing: Thank you for talking about your dreams and don't let anyone tell you that it will prevent you from achieving your dreams. ”
Biden's use of the phrase “all of my life” reflects a new way of talking about the fight. said John Hendrickson, author of an in-depth article in The Atlantic, “Joe Biden's Stuttering and Me.” “This is a notable change in Mr. Biden's language. The closest he's ever come to saying 'I still stutter,'” he tweeted.
Biden and his aides have talked about stuttering in complicated and even contradictory ways. Biden has often portrayed it as something he completely overcame in his childhood, a story of resilience and victory. His aides have also emphasized Biden's stutter to explain his stumbling, at times blaming it on his disability rather than his age.
In an interview with Conan O'Brien in December, the comedian and podcast host said Biden's struggle with his stutter must have “energized” and “strengthened” him as a person. . Mr. Biden responded, “Well, when I was a kid…'' to which Mr. O'Brien quickly added, “By the way, this issue is being ignored.''
Mr. Biden has made his childhood experiences central to his compassion for the underprivileged.
“No matter how mean you were to us, we were never allowed to make fun of someone who was going through something they couldn't get over. I swear to God,” Biden told O'Brien. “If you do that, you'll get your ass kicked when you get home. I'm not kidding. So I learned that there are a lot of people who struggle with dilemmas that take away their pride and dignity.”
Biden rarely focuses on his stuttering as a current challenge, but he frequently brings it up as a story of overcoming adversity.
He talked about it at fundraisers and campaign rallies. He brought it up when presenting the Presidential Medal of Freedom and when recognizing the national teacher of the year. He mentioned it at an event on health care costs in Virginia, a eulogy in Delaware, and a commencement address at South Carolina State University. He quoted these words at a dinner in Dublin, a meeting with U.S. military personnel in the UK, and at a Toys for All campaign event.
“Probably the best thing that ever happened to me was one of the worst things,” Biden said on a podcast exploring grief hosted by Anderson Cooper. “When I was a kid, I had a really bad stutter, and I was babbling and babbling and stuff like that. And I hated the fact that I stuttered.”
Biden said that when he had a paper route, he would construct the conversation in his head before arriving at someone's door so he wouldn't stumble over the words. He read and captured the words of an Irish poet who he would later quote as president.
He recalled how, as a freshman in high school, he was embarrassingly excused from a public speaking assignment. “But I realized that was a great lesson that I learned, because everyone has something that they can't completely control, everyone,” Biden told Cooper. “And for someone like me who stutters, that was a great gift.”
He says one of his favorite movies still is “The King's Speech,'' which depicts the accession of King George VI, who must overcome a language barrier to address the nation during World War II. say.
But for Trump, his stutter became another path to follow Biden's lead. The presumptive Republican nominee regularly accepts ridicule and ridicule, whether from illegal immigrants, Republican rivals or liberal Democrats.
Trump has mocked Biden for allegedly struggling to get off stage after a speech, painting the president as confused and aimless. But stuttering is also a target.
After Biden spoke in Pennsylvania in January, Trump addressed a crowd in Sioux Center, Iowa. “Did you see him? He was stammering the whole time,” Trump told the crowd with a laugh. “He's saying I'm a threat to democracy.”
“'He is a threat to democracy,'” he continued, pretending to stutter. “I couldn't read the words.”
That statement was false. Biden repeated the word “democracy” 29 times in his speech, but never once did he stumble.
Miller, the Trump adviser, downplayed the distinction between mocking Biden's stutter and attacking his general abilities.
“Joe Biden can't put two sentences together,” Miller said. “It is not President Trump's responsibility to diagnose what is wrong with Biden. We are simply observing what is happening. This weakness has emboldened our enemies and brought death and destruction at home and abroad.”
Experts say even people who overcome stuttering when they were young can experience it again as they get older. Biden himself sometimes shifts his focus, sometimes seeing stuttering as a distant memory and other times seeing it as an ongoing battle.
Most of the time he puts it in his distant past. Biden said in December 2022 that “from an early age until he was in high school, he suffered from a stutter.” He said that on another occasion in the same year, he took speech and debate classes in college and almost overcame his stutter. , even if it still appears from time to time.
But every once in a while, like during a CNN town hall in February 2020, Biden speaks of a never-ending struggle. “It's a debilitating situation,” Biden said at the event. “And I still sometimes find myself saying things like that when I feel really tired.”
David Frank, a rhetoric professor at the University of Oregon who has studied Biden's speeches, said the president clearly uses techniques to avoid stuttering, such as avoiding certain words and phrases. “There are words he avoids and substitutes, and he avoids syllables that he knows will trip him up,” Frank said.
Frank said Biden should have more fully acknowledged his stutter so he could connect with viewers. “He's like a lot of us who are dealing with our own demons,” Frank said. “If he admits that he has not overcome it, he will be perceived as weak. If he says that he has completely overcome it, he is not being true to himself.”
Biden allies have often pointed to his willingness to speak openly about his struggles, even if usually in the past tense, as a way to uplift the estimated 3 million Americans who stutter.
For example, at an event in 2022, he noticed someone in the crowd holding a sign that said “Thank you for stuttering.” In 2020, he met 13-year-old Brayden Harrington at a campaign stop, gave him advice on how to deal with his speech impediment, and later invited him to speak at the Democratic National Convention. And last week, I met 9-year-old Harry Abramson in Wisconsin.
“If you think about it, stuttering is the only disability that anyone still thinks they can laugh about,” Biden said at a fundraiser in October.
As for Trump, Biden is not the first person to be made fun of for having a disability. In 2015, as a presidential candidate, he mockingly imitated New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski, who has a congenital condition that affects the joints known as arthrogryposis. President Trump denied knowing about Kovaleski's condition.
As Peter Baker and Susan Glasser report in their book The Divider, and former White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly later acknowledged, as president Trump will stand alongside wounded veterans. He resisted appearing. “I don't want them,” President Trump said. “That doesn't look good to me.”
Mr. Trump disputed Mr. Kelly's explanation.
In a 2015 television interview, President Trump responded to criticism from columnist Charles Krauthammer, who uses a wheelchair, by calling him “a guy who can't even buy pants.”
“Trump thinks he can make himself look strong by mocking people and disenfranchising people,” Biden campaign spokesman TJ Ducklo said. “But it only reveals how weak, insecure and vulnerable he is to having to face voters who want real leadership.”
Some people close to Mr. Biden say it's significant that he not only overcame his stutter but also entered a profession that requires endless public speaking.
“How do you go from a stutterer to a guy who makes a career out of speaking?” he added. “Who in history has given more speeches than Joe Biden?”
