Maybe the most infamous part of Biden’s trip was his “cringe-inducing twenty-six minutes in Hanoi,” as Ben Domenech put it. Biden mumbled and stumbled his way through “his frequently deployed Hollywood equivalent of a Mandela Effect — his own personal Berenstein Bears, his Stouffer’s Stove Top — about a movie scene that simply does not exist,” equating climate change “deniers” to those “lying dog-faced pony soldiers” that inhabit only whatever is left of his mind. Biden picked up steam again, as he moved from the fabulist John Wayne quote and into his climate change spiel — then quickly lost steam again.“Staff, is there anybody I haven’t spoken to? I ain’t calling on ya, I’m calling on… it says I have five questions!”
Watching Biden fade in and out repeatedly during a single speech was about the most worrisome thing I’ve experienced since 9/11/2001 when my mom called and said, “Turn on the TV.” When I asked which channel, she said, “It doesn’t matter.”