For several decades, President Joe Biden has been embarrassing himself by talking for a little too long.
In 2006 Biden was described as “loquacious” by The Situation Room host Wolf Blitzer. In 2007 he was called “a gaffe machine” by NBC’s debate moderator Brian Williams.
Now, Biden has performed his latest gaffe at a White House ceremony for the teacher of the year — and this one is especially bizarre because first lady Jill Biden had to intervene.
The conservative network The First TV obtained a video from the ceremony.
In the video, Biden ambles to the microphone and says, “I’ll tell you what. I’d like to learn!” It remains unclear what he wants to learn.
Then, First Lady Jill Biden walked to the president and said, “Look at me.”
The president spoke into the microphone after that, but the blaring music drowned out his voice. This portion of the ceremony from omitted from the YouTube livestream and the White House transcripts.
He waved and walked away from the microphone, all while wearing aviators.
Watch the video here —
A confused Joe Biden tried to awkwardly talk into microphone over blasting music. pic.twitter.com/Uri7naERti
— The First (@TheFirstonTV) October 18, 2021
The first lady gave her scheduled speech, and the president made a “surprise” appearance.
He opened with a canned joke: “My name is Joe Biden, and I’m Jill’s husband.” The audience laughed.
“I just want you to know, Becky, you know, Jill is a member of the union. I hope her dues are paid up,” Joe Biden told the leader of the teachers’ union.
The first lady has worked as a teacher intermittently since the 1970s. In fact, she still teaches English at a local community college near Washington, D.C.
“She’s the only — she’s the only first lady who’s ever had a full-time job,” Biden claimed.
The first lady talked about her influence from her grandmother, a teacher who taught in an old-fashioned, one-room schoolhouse crammed with three grades of students.
She said she sometimes went to school with her grandmother, who would let her ring the brass bell that summoned the students to class.
“I thought if I could do what she did, if I could set just one student on a better path, that would be really special,” the first lady said.
She acknowledged the challenges faced by teachers during the pandemic.
“Through uncertainty and unknowns, through a computer screen or at a distance in the classroom, teachers found new and innovative ways to connect,” the first lady said. “You met students where they were. You worked long hours.”
The 2021 national teacher of the year is Juliana Urtubey, a special education teacher in Las Vegas. The first lady surprised her in her classroom on live television in May 2021.
The 2020 teacher of the year is Tabatha Rosproy, a preschool teacher in Winfield, Kansas.
President Biden presented each teacher with an award shaped like an apple.
The Associated Press and The Horn editorial team contributed to this article.