President Joe Biden was in a jovial mood when he spoke Thursday at the annual Friends of Ireland Luncheon on Capitol Hill.
In a nod to Thursday being St. Patrick’s Day, Biden said, “Bless me father, for I’m about to sin.”
“I just want you to know, I may be Irish, but I’m not stupid. I married Dominic Giacoppa’s daughter,” the president quickly added, to the amusement of the crowd.
Par for the course, his whimsical remark was a blunder, as Giacoppa is not first lady Jill Biden’s father, but her grandfather.
The president would later comment on St. Patrick’s Day being an occasion that brings about bipartisan goodwill in Washington.
“You know, the good spirits and feelings as well that exist on St. Patrick’s Day seems to be one of those few times — and I shouldn’t say few — we should have more times like this for Democrats and Republicans to get together, and we actually not only agree on one thing, but we remind ourselves we actually like each other,” he said. “That’s a useful thing.”
As for his jovial mood, that would dissipate later when he slammed Russian President Vladimir Putin as “a murderous dictator, a pure thug, who is waging an immoral war against the people of Ukraine.”
As for being Irish, the Daily Mail noted: “Biden is reported to only be about five-eighths Irish, but is known for playing up his Irish heritage – despite the fact he has a sizable number of English ancestors too.”
The recurring thought online to Biden’s joke was to question what he meant by the remark, with some asking if he was suggesting Irish people are stupid.
Here’s a quick sampling of responses to the story from Twitter:
What does he mean? Would any Irish help to explain?
🧐🧐🧐🧐🧐🧐— Yueting Zhang (@zhang_yueting) March 17, 2022
Ayy I’m not perverted, I’m just Italian
— Zac Lincoln 🇺🇸 (@ZacLincoln) March 17, 2022
@POTUS is an equal opportunity denigrator.
— David Theus (@DavidTheus) March 17, 2022
I’m Irish. Did Joe just call me stupid?
— J Walsh 🇺🇲 (@Rmwalsh3692) March 17, 2022
He misspoke again, what he meant to say was “I may be stupid, but I’m not Irish”
— then (@corruptedHouse) March 17, 2022
If you don’t vote for me, you ain’t Irish…
— JD (@Mori0174) March 17, 2022
Brandon has set the bar so low for POTUS even AOC is now considered an upgrade.
— Jmp49ers (@JeffJen49ers) March 17, 2022
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