Joe Biden is known for awkward compliments and bizarre public displays, but this is a new one.
During a Friday press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, Biden attempted to compliment Japanese Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama, by referring to the 29-year-old man as a “Japanese boy.”
“Yoshi, I know how proud you are — the people of Japan are — and you’ve got a Japanese boy coming over here, and guess what? He won the Masters. He won the Masters. He won the green jacket,” Biden said in the Rose Garden.
Hideki Matsuyama, a full-grown adult, won the Masters at Augusta National on Sunday.
The mainstream media had little to say about Biden’s awkward word choice and phrasing. Because, obviously, the mainstream media would have reacted with similar silence had President Trump referred to anyone from another country or ethnicity other than white as “boy.”
Twitter, however, had plenty to say:
This pretty much summed up everyone’s thoughts:
Suga’s U.S. visit is off to a very shaky start. First, he was greeted by Vice President Kamala Harris, not President Biden. Biden’s attempt at complimenting Matsuyama probably did not help matters.