President Biden raised eyebrows during a black-tie event for the nation’s governors hosted at the White House over the weekend when he was visibly flustered while trying to quote Abraham Lincoln.
Biden was reading from a notecard but still managed to flub the quote from Lincoln’s inaugural address.
“Standing here in front of this portrait of the man behind me, I want to make sure I get this quote exactly right,” Biden began, standing in front of a painting of the 16th president.
“He said, ‘We — the better angels,” he said, ‘We must address the counsel — and adjust to the better angels of our nature.’”
“And we do the — and we do well to remember what else he said. He said, ‘We’re not enemies, but friends.’
“This is in the middle of — this is in the — in the part of the Civil War,” Biden continued.
“He said: ‘We’re not enemies, but [we’re] friends, we must not be enemies.”
The original quote was from Lincoln’s first inaugural address in March 1861, in which he famously said: “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies.”
“Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection,” Lincoln told the divided nation.
Watch the clip below:
Biden completely malfunctions as he tries — and fails miserably — to read a quote from "the man behind me here" pic.twitter.com/anLx6NEAPx
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 25, 2024
Thank you for visiting