Joe Biden’s Stand-up Comedy (After School Shooting)

On the morning of 27 March 2023 at around 10.11am, 28-year-old graphic designer and illustrator Audrey Hale forced entry to Covenant Christian School in Nashville, Tennessee, carrying three firearms, and used those weapons to kill three school children and three adults, and was shot dead by police about 15 minutes later at 10.27am. A few hours later, President Joe Biden was attending the Small Business Administration Women’s Business Summit hosted at the White House. He was cordially introduced and began his speech at 2:43pm, or 1:43pm Nashville time, I believe. To be fair to Biden, he wasn’t there to talk about the shooting, however, this was his first public statement about it and it took him more than two minutes to even mention it. And during that two or so minutes, he basically did a stand-up comedy routine about ice cream and other such things. Even after mentioning the shooting, he still continued to joke around about ice cream, which I will show you in this video. I have linked the official transcript of his speech below.

Remarks by President Biden at the SBA Women’s Business Summit
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2023/03/27/remarks-by-president-biden-at-the-sba-womens-business-summit/

Here are the highlights, if you can call them that, of President Biden’s Women’s Business Summit speech:

“Thank you. My name is Joe Biden. (Laughter.) I’m Dr. Jill Biden’s husband. (Laughter.) And I eat Jeni’s Ice Cream, chocolate chip. (Laughter.) I came down because I heard there was chocolate chip ice cream. (Laughter.) By the way, I have a whole refrigerator full upstairs. (Laughter.) You think I’m kidding, I’m not. Folks, welcome to the White House. Thank you. And it’s a delight to have you all here. And who are those good-looking kids back here? (Laughter.) Those are my kids. They’re your kids? All four of them? Yes. Well, stand up, guys. (Laughter and applause.) Well, I want you to know, like you, I had two brothers — there were three in our family, three brothers, and one sister. And my sister is smarter than all of us. (Laughter.) Not a joke. She used to be three years younger than me; now she’s 23 years younger than me. (Laughter.) You know, she managed every one of my campaigns for office, even back when I was in high school. We went to the same university two years apart. She graduated with honors; I graduated. (Laughter.) And we had a simple rule in the family: Listen to Val. (Laughter.) My sister, Valerie, is incredible. So, guys, be nice to your sister. You’re going to need her. (Laughter.) You’re going to need her. I promise. You got to take care of your mom. Dads are much harder to raise. But, you know, we’re — (laughter) — Before I begin to speak, and the reason I spent a little time on the kids, I — I just want to speak very briefly about the school shooting in Nashville, Tennessee. And it’s just — it’s sick. You know, we’re still gathering the facts of what happened and why. And we do know that, as of now, there are a number of people who are not going to — did not make it, including children. And it’s heartbreaking. A family’s worst nightmare. And we have to do more to stop gun violence. It’s ripping our communities apart, ripping the soul of this nation — ripping at the very soul of the nation. And we — we have to do more to protect our schools so they aren’t turned into prisons. You know, the shooter in this situation reportedly had two assault weapons and a pistol — two AK-47. So I call on Congress, again, to pass my assault weapons ban. It’s about time that we begin to make some more progress. Anyway, sorry to start off that way, but I couldn’t begin without acknowledging what happened. Today it’s all about lifting up women entrepreneurs and making sure they have the support they need to succeed. The businesses represented in this room stretch across industries, from restaurants to architectural firms to hardware stores, plus Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams. And by the way — by the way, it is splendid. You think I’m joking. If I were allowed to take you upstairs, we got a whole freezer full of Jeni’s chocolate chip ice cream. You know, it’s pretty dull when you’ve been in public life as long as I have and you’re known for two things: chocolate chip ice cream and Ray-Ban sunglasses. But what the hell, you know? $300 billion — to restore America’s technological edge by — including by manufacturing semiconductor chips. By the way, we invented those chips. No, we did. We, the United States of America. And then we got fat and happy. I’ve never been more optimistic — I mean this from the bottom — and I’ve been doing this — I know I don’t look it, but I’ve been doing this a long time. Folks, I can’t stay. I’ve got to go, but I hope you have a good conference here, and I hope you have a good roundtable. And there’s a little thing going on in — around the world. But anyway, I better — thank you so very, very much for everything.”

MUSIC
Allégro by Emmit Fenn