Donald Trump Jr. Stirs Outrage With Failed Attempt to Call out Joe Biden Over False 'Jill Biden' Gaffe

Daniel S. Levine

07/05/2020 02:27 pm EDT

Donald Trump Jr., the son of President Donald Trump, attempted to take another dig at his father's opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden. Before giving a remote address to the National Education Association, NEA President Lily Eskelsen Garcia spoke about Biden's wife, Dr. Jill Biden, who is a member of the organization. Garcia introduced Biden, who then introduced himself as "Jill Biden's husband, Joe Biden," using the same joke he has in the past.

Since the remark sounded like Biden called himself "Joe Biden's husband, Joe Biden," Trump Jr. and many others jumped at the chance to call this a gaffe. "This is ridiculous already. How can they let this guy possibly be the leader of anything let alone the leader of the free world?" Trump Jr. tweeted. "These daily mistakes are not gaffes they are a serious issue for someone who could have the nuclear football, they show a lapse of basic reasoning."

However, many others did not hear it that way, and pointed out that Biden often pays respects to his wife by referring to himself as "Jill Biden's husband." When he kicked off his 2020 campaign in April 2019, he made the same joke, and it earned a headline on The Hill. "My name is Joe Biden, and I'm Jill Biden's husband," Biden told a group of supporters in Pittsburgh at the time. "That's how I'm known back home, that's how I'm known most places." Others also posted tweets with clips of President Trump's own mistakes while speaking.

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During his speech Saturday, Biden told the country's largest teachers' union they will "never find in American history a president who is more teacher-centric or more supportive of teachers than me," reports EdWeek. He later added, "This is going to be a teacher-oriented Department of Education, and it's not going to come from the top down—it's going to come from the teachers up." Biden has said he will nominate a teacher to lead the Department of Education if elected.

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Jill, who has a doctoral degree in education leadership, has taken a major role in her husband's campaign and often appears at fundraisers and events. During a recent interview with the Today Show, Jill praised her husband's decision to chose a woman to serve as Vice President and said she has given her view on who he should pick. "Joe really knows what he wants in a vice president certainly because he's been there and he knows how important it is that the woman he chooses will have the same values, and the same values as to how to govern this country, so that's what he's looking for," Jill said.

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