Biden has tried to stay in the periphery. But now he’s made a big mistake.
And Joe Biden burst back onto the stage for the worst reason imaginable.
Former President Joe Biden, at 83, delivered a bizarre and self-aggrandizing eulogy at Rev. Jesse Jackson’s funeral in Chicago, where he oddly boasted about his intelligence to the assembled mourners, raising eyebrows about his judgment and coherence in such a solemn setting.
His disjointed comments, including a rambling tangent on Africa and Nelson Mandela, only fueled criticism that he’s increasingly out of touch, especially as he took jabs at the Trump administration amid ongoing political tensions.
Biden’s Out-of-Place Boast and Personal Anecdote
During his speech at Chicago’s House of Hope, Biden veered into a story about his childhood stutter, using it to awkwardly assert his superiority over the audience in a moment that many saw as ill-suited for a funeral.
“Now, if I told you all earlier, when I was a kid, I had a cleft palate or club foot, none of you would have laughed, but it’s okay to laugh at stuttering,” Biden said, before adding, “It’s the one place where people think you’re stupid. Oh, really? I’m hell of a lot smarter than most of you.” He followed up with, “all kidding aside, it makes you feel really small.”
This peculiar aside highlighted Biden’s tendency to make events about himself, detracting from the focus on honoring Jackson and underscoring questions about his public speaking gaffes in recent years.
Rambling Digressions and Online Ridicule
Biden’s address took another confusing turn with a meandering discussion on Nelson Mandela and Africa, mistakenly referring to the continent’s projected population growth as making it “the largest continent in the world” by 2050, while recalling a vague conversation with Jackson about a visit to South Africa. These scattered remarks were widely panned as incoherent, sparking immediate backlash on social media.
The X account Libs of TikTok shared a clip, captioning it that Biden “just told the attendees at Jesse Jackson’s memorial service that they’re dumb.”
Users piled on with comments like, “Does he know he’s at a funeral?” and “That’s scary he thinks he’s smart at all.” The episode amplified perceptions of Biden as diminished and prone to embarrassing missteps that undermine Democratic messaging.
Political Barbs from Other Speakers Amid Jackson’s Legacy
Other prominent Democrats used the occasion to subtly criticize the current administration, with Biden himself claiming that it “doesn’t share any of the values that we have.” Former President Barack Obama alluded to “those in high office” while describing the current era as challenging, and former Vice President Kamala Harris opened by noting she had “predicted a lot of what’s happening right now.”
Rev. Jesse Jackson passed away on February 17 at age 84 after battling progressive supranuclear palsy.
As a key protégé of Martin Luther King Jr., he founded the Rainbow PUSH Coalition and mounted influential presidential campaigns in the 1980s that transformed Democratic politics—achievements somewhat overshadowed by the distracting political undertones at his memorial.
