‘I hibernated’: Biden makes apparent joke while discussing wind power
WASHINGTON — So that’s why they call him “Sleepy Joe.”
President Biden unexpectedly told an audience in New Mexico Wednesday that he has “hibernated” in the past, an apparent joke that resurrected memories of former President Donald Trump bestowing the unflattering nickname during the 2020 election campaign.
“Siemens Corporation laid off workers who were making wind turbine parts and put the plant in Iowa and Kansas into what they now call, they refer to as ‘hibernation’,” Biden said at a wind-tower plant in Albuquerque.
“I hibernated in a while — all, you know, in Iowa for a while,” he said to a smattering of chuckles.
“But look, now we’re reopening both these plants and rehiring workers.”
Biden, 80, largely ran for the White House from his basement at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, holding few events while Trump stuck to a packed schedule of rallies.
The president is seeking a second four-year term in next year’s election, despite polls showing that a majority of voters believe he lacks the mental fitness for office.
An NBC poll released in late June found 68% of voters believe that Biden lacked the mental and physical health needed to be president.
Weeks earlier, a Washington Post-ABC poll found that just 32% of voters believe Biden has the mental sharpness required for the job — versus 54% who said the same of Trump.
Trump, 77, is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination and is neck-and-neck with Biden in national polling, despite facing three criminal cases, including federal charges brought last week by special counsel Jack Smith over the former president’s efforts to block certification of Biden’s victory in 2020.
Biden was in New Mexico to celebrate the one-year anniversary of Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act, a $437 billion package that included $369 billion for environmental projects, $64 billion for more generous COVID-19-era Obamacare subsidies and $4 billion for Western wildfire resilience.
But the president’s gaffes have distracted from what was supposed to be an easy swing through the Southwest, with Biden on Tuesday mistakenly declaring the Grand Canyon one of the “nine wonders” of the world and full of “ironic” species.
