President Joe Biden tried to mock Chinese President Xi Jinping during his State of the Union speech on Tuesday but ended up blurting out a nonsensical demand and confusing viewers.
During a section of the speech addressing foreign policy and China, Biden tried to diss Xi by implying there is no other world leader who would trade places with him.
“Look. Let’s be clear: Winning the competition [with China] should unite all of us. We face serious challenges across the world. But in the past two years, democracies have become stronger, not weaker. Autocracies have grown weaker, not stronger. Name me a world leader who’d change places with Xi Jinping. Name me one! Name me one!” he screamed.
Biden’s “Name me one!” line was not part of his original speech, according to text of it that was distributed by the White House beforehand.
After he delivered the line, he was met with relative silence from the otherwise raucous chamber filled with several hundred members of Congress.
Biden was later mocked online.
Julia Ioffe, Puck News founding partner and Washington correspondent, tweeted: “Vladimir Putin. There.”
Writer Michael Tracey tweeted, “I don’t know, who’s the leader of Malawi or Guyana? If it’s true that China is rapidly becoming such a fearsome military/economic superpower, why wouldn’t other leaders aspire to wield some awesome power?
Military veteran podcaster “BK” tweeted: “Name a single world leader who would like to take charge of the most populous and second richest country in the world that has an advanced military while wielding almost unlimited autocratic power over a subservient obedient population; haha see you can’t do it can you,” adding a queasy-face emoji.
Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI) tweeted: “Name me another world leader who would leave $7 billion worth of military equipment to the Taliban, deliberately erase their nation’s sovereignty, and allow Communist China to spy on their homeland. NAME ME ONE! NAME ME ONE!”
Biden’s ad-lib came after China flew a 200-foot spy balloon carrying a payload the size of a jetliner into U.S. sovereign airspace and over a number of states as it made its way from Montana to South Carolina.
Supporters of the president praised Biden’s nonsensical line.
Writer Tom Nichols took back his earlier criticism of Biden’s speech, tweeting based on that line: “Wow. ‘NAME ME ONE.’ Note to self: Wait for the whole speech before deciding how good a speech it is.”
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