President Joe Biden insisted there was “nothing wrong with me” as he butchered the name of a Native American community he was visiting.
The 81-year-old president visited the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona on Friday, but had difficulty delivering it.
‘Governor, thank you for that presentation. And to the Gila Indian River community: the Gila… the Gila… there’s nothing wrong with me,” he said with a laugh. ‘The Gila River Indian Community, for welcoming me today.’
It was the latest in a series of blunders by Biden since he was forced to abandon his re-election bid after a disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump.
Biden became the first sitting U.S. president to visit the community, near Phoenix, a trip that came 11 days before Election Day in a crucial state.
He formally apologized for the federal government’s program of forcing Native American children into boarding schools.
President Joe Biden said, “There’s nothing wrong with me” as he trashed his introduction to a Native American community he was visiting to issue a historic apology.
He was greeted by most members of the community, except for one very vocal pro-Palestine protester. who interrupted him after pronouncing the official apology.
“There are a lot of innocent people being murdered. There are a lot of innocent people being murdered and this has to stop,” the president said, allowing her to air her grievances for a few seconds.
Biden began his remarks by recalling his early friendship with the late Hawaiian senator Daniel Inouye.
“The first thing he taught me, not jokingly, was, ‘Joe, they weren’t Indians, they’re Indian nations,’ he was serious,” Biden said.
The president noted that it has been 10 years since a president visited Indian country.
“I say this with all sincerity, to me it is one of the most important things I have had the opportunity to do in my entire career as president of the United States,” Biden said before a crowd of hundreds of people.
He also commented on how Dr. Jill Biden had visited Indian Country 10 times during her nearly four years in office.
She had joked: “Joe, make sure you come home,” Biden said.
The president talks about how Native American children were separated from their families in a government-sanctioned program for more than 150 years.
‘I formally apologize. As President of the United States of America for what we did. “I formally apologize,” he said. “It should have been done a long time ago.”
The 81-year-old president visited the Gila River Indian Community on Friday and said, “I formally apologize” for the federal government’s program of forcing Native American children into boarding schools.
A woman (left) interrupted President Joe Biden by shouting “Free Palestine” while another protester held a sign saying “there are still babies in mass graves.” Your apology means nothing
An emotional Interior Secretary Deb Haaland spoke about what the apology meant to Indian Country aboard Air Force One on Thursday en route to Phoenix, revealing that her own family had been affected.
‘For more than a century, tens of thousands of indigenous children, as young as four years old, were separated from their families and communities and forced into boarding schools run by the US government and religious institutions. This includes my own family,” Haaland said.
The program ran from the early 19th century until the 1970s, separating Native American families.
The president began his speech by recalling his early friendship with the late Hawaiian Senator Daniel Inouye.
“For decades, this terrible chapter was hidden in our history books, but now the work of our administration will ensure that no one will ever forget it,” he continued.
Haaland said that at one time it would have seemed “far-fetched” for the “federal government to acknowledge and apologize for the trauma and intergenerational impacts that these boarding schools, these places of horror, caused.”
He called Biden’s apology “historic.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre used the upcoming speech to raise a political question about honestly teaching the nation’s history, even its darkest chapters.
Conservatives have gone after the teaching of “critical race theory” in schools, pushing that students should not be taught things like slavery so explicitly.