President Joe Biden insisted ‘there’s nothing wrong with me’ as he butchered the name of a Native American community he was visiting.
The 81-year-old president on Friday visited the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona but struggled to pronounce it.
‘Gov, thank you for that introduction. And to the Gila Indian River Community – the Gila…the Gila…nothing wrong with me,’ he said to laughs. ‘The Gila River Indian Community, for welcoming me today.’
It was the latest in a series of fumbles by Biden since he was forced out of seeking re-election after a disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump.
Biden became the first sitting U.S. president to visit the community, near Phoenix – a trip being made 11 days before Election Day in a crucial swing state.
He formally apologized for the federal government’s program of forcing Native American children into boarding schools.
President Joe Biden cracked ‘there’s nothing wrong with me’ as he butchered his introduction to a Native American community he was visiting to issue a historic apology
He was welcomed by most members of the community, except one very loud female pro-Palestine protester. who interrupted him after he delivered the official apology.
‘There’s a lot of innocent people being killed. There’s a lot of innocent people being killed and it has to stop,’ the president said, allowing her to air out her grievances for a few seconds.
Biden began his remarks by recalling his early friendship with the late Hawaiian Sen. Daniel Inouye.
‘The first thing he taught me, not a joke, was – “Joe, it was not Indian, it’s Indian nations,” he was serious,’ Biden said.
The president remarked that it has been 10 years since a president visited Indian country.
‘I say this with all sincerity, this to me is one of the most consequential things I’ve ever had the opportunity to do in my whole career as President of the United States,’ Biden told a crowd that numbered in the hundreds.
He also remarked how Dr. Jill Biden had visited Indian Country 10 times during their nearly four years in office.
She had joked, ‘Joe make sure you come home,’ Biden said.
The president talking about how Native American children were ripped away from their families in a government-sanctioned program for more than 150 years.
‘I formally apologize. As President of the United States of America for what we did. I formally apologize,’ he said. ‘It’s long overdue.’
The 81-year-old president on Friday visited the Gila River Indian Community and said ‘I formally apologize’ for the federal government’s program of forcing Native Americans children into boarding schools.
A woman (left) interrupted President Joe Biden yelling ‘free Palestine’ while another demonstrator held up a sign saying ‘there are still babies in mass graves. Your apology means nothing’
An emotional Interior Secretary Deb Haaland spoke about what the apology meant to Indian Country on board Air Force One on Thursday en route to Phoenix – revealing that her own family had been impacted.
‘For more than a century, tens of thousands of Indigenous children, as young as four years old, were taken from their families and communities and forced into boarding schools run by the U.S. government and religious institutions. This includes my own family,’ Haaland said.
The program took place from the early 1800s up until the 1970s – forcing apart Native American families.
The president started his remarks by recalling his early friendship with the late Hawaiian Sen. Daniel Inouye
‘For decades, this terrible chapter was hidden from our history books, but now our administration’s work will ensure that no one will ever forget,’ she continued.
Haaland said that at one point it would have seen ‘far-fetched’ that the ‘federal government would acknowledge and apologize for the trauma and intergenerational impacts that these boarding schools – these places of horror – caused.’
She called Biden’s apology ‘historic.’
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre used the upcoming speech to make a political point about teaching the nation’s history honestly – even its darker chapters.
Conservatives have gone after ‘critical race theory‘ being taught in schools, pushing that students should not be taught about things like slavery so explicitly.