President Joe Biden appeared to get agitated, seemingly putting his hands on and scolding a reporter who asked about the number of Democrats who have not asked him to make campaign appearances on their behalf.
Biden made the comments during a brief pool spray outside the White House on Thursday, acknowledging that he planned to head to Pennsylvania and campaign with U.S. Senate hopeful John Fetterman (D) ahead of his midterm battle against Dr. Mehmet Oz (R).
WATCH:
“John Fetterman’s gonna appear with you today in Pennsylvania, but there haven’t been that many candidates campaigning with you —”
Biden, grabbing the reporter: “That’s not true! There’ve been 15. COUNT KID, COUNT!” pic.twitter.com/Weg5WPHrSU
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 20, 2022
“John Fetterman’s gonna appear with you today in Pennsylvania, but there haven’t been that many candidates campaigning with you —” the reporter began.
“That’s not true! There’ve been 15,” Biden shot back, reaching out of the frame and appearing to lay hands on the reporter. “Count kid, count!”
The president’s mood did not seem to improve much as he walked past the other reporters toward Marine One and scolded another reporter — laying his hands on this one as well — over a question regarding potential restrictions on abortion.
WATCH:
Biden manhandles reporter and tells him to “get educated.” https://t.co/v9aOk4LFqc pic.twitter.com/5uZJ7Dp2dp
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) October 20, 2022
“Do you believe there should be any restrictions on abortion at all?” the reporter asked, repeating, “Any restrictions on abortion at all.”
“Uh, yes, there should be,” Biden shouted back, visibly grabbing the reporter by the arm as he added, “Roe v. Wade. Read it, man, you’ll get educated.”
President Biden has often appeared to be short-tempered and has snapped at a number of reporters and members of the general public throughout his 2020 campaign and during the first 20 months of his presidency.
Among the most notable examples:
December 2019: Biden appears to say, “Look, fat,” and then proceeds to call an audience member a “damn liar.” He later claims he meant to say “facts,” not “fat.”
February 2020: Biden refers to a female college student as a “lying, dog-faced pony soldier.” He later claims it was a joke reference to an old John Wayne film.
January 2022: Biden calls Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy a “stupid son-of-a b***” on a live microphone in response to a question about skyrocketing inflation and whether or not it would hurt him politically.
October 2022: Biden snaps at Doocy again, this time for asking whether his top priority is inflation or abortion, noting that more time and energy appeared to be going into the latter.
