(Headline USA) President Joe Biden appeared to forget Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s name during an interview this week, instead referring to him as a “black man.”
“It’s all about treating people with dignity,” Biden said during a sit-down with Black Entertainment Television on Wednesday night. “I named the secretary of defense … a black man.”
Biden went on to cite other examples of his diversity hires, including Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
This is not the first time Biden has seemingly forgotten Austin’s name. At an event in March where Biden announced the nomination of two female generals to lead U.S. military combatant commands, Biden commented, “And I want to thank the sec—the, the, ah, former general. I keep calling him general, but my, my—the guy who runs that outfit over there,” he said, pointing to Austin.
BET’s Ed Gordon asked Biden at one point what it would take to get him to consider withdrawing from the 2024 race, given the heightened concerns about his mental acuity. For the first time, Biden didn’t shut the door on the idea.
“If I had some medical condition that emerged, the doctors came and said you’ve got this problem, that problem,” Biden replied. “But I made a serious mistake in the whole debate,” he said.
“And look, when I originally ran, you might remember it, I said I was going to be a transitional candidate,” he added. “I thought that I would be able to move from this, to pass it on to somebody else. But I didn’t anticipate things getting so, so, so divided.”
Top Democratic leaders have been applying more and more pressure in an effort to get Biden to voluntarily abandon his reelection bid, despite the 81-year-old’s assurances that he plans to keep campaigning.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., have reportedly met with Biden over the past week to urge him to drop out.
Reports late Thursday suggested that Biden might be planning to announce his withdrawal from the race over the weekend, although he was not going to offer his support to the black woman he named as his running mate to take his place.
BREAKING NEWS: Multiples sources outline the apparent state of play on Biden at this time:
* plans to announce withdrawal from nomination as early as this weekend, with Sunday most likely
* Jon Meacham polishing up remarks
* Biden with NOT resign the presidency
* Biden will… https://t.co/l0LrfDTvOL
— Mark Halperin (@MarkHalperin) July 18, 2024
