Representative Jackie Walorski (R-IN) sits between Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Senator Todd Young (R-IN) during a meeting between President Donald Trump and members of Congress on the 13th. February 2018.
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Representative Jackie Walorski (R-IN) sits between Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Senator Todd Young (R-IN) during a meeting between President Donald Trump and members of Congress on the 13th. February 2018.
Alex Wong / Getty Images
President Joe Biden mistakenly called Representative Jackie Walorski, the Indiana Republican who died in a car crash in August, during his opening remarks at a White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health.
Walorski was one of four co-responders about a conference sponsorship bill and was an advocate for reducing hunger in America.
“Jackie, are you here? Where is Jackie,” he said as he looked out into the audience on Wednesday morning. “She’ll be here.”
In August, Biden and first lady Jill Biden released a statement of condolences after Walorski’s death.
“I appreciate her cooperation as we plan a historic White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health this fall that will be marked by her profound concern. to the needs of rural America,” Biden said in a statement in August. “Our deepest condolences go out to her husband, Dean, to the families of her employees, Zachery Potts and Emma Thomson, who lost their lives in the line of duty, and the people of Indiana’s 2nd District have lost an agent that is one of their own.”
The White House also raised the flag at a height of half a foot in memory of Walorski and her aides, who also died.
My condolences to Walorski, who served as a member of the House of Representatives on famine in the House of Representatives, was extended during the event by Representative Jim McGovern (D-MA) in remarks following Biden’s speech. And White House policy adviser Susan Rice said she “of course” misses Walorski, “who passed away in August” at the start of a session with lawmakers following the president’s remarks.
And a pre-produced video in tribute to Walorski was played on the main stage of the conference in the afternoon. The video featured Walorski’s advocacy for solutions to the Hill hunger both on the floor and during the hearings.
At the afternoon briefing, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre did not admit that Biden was wrong. Jean-Pierre told reporters, many of whom pressed her to be more specific, that Walorski was the biggest focus of attention for Biden as he named the congressional champion of the Hunger Assembly. And the president, she said, will honor Walorski on Friday with the signing of a bill renaming a VA clinic in Indiana after her. “That’s what he’s thinking about. He’s thinking about her,” says Jean-Pierre.
Biden has a history of making gaffes
Biden has previously called himself “a clumsy machine” – a sign of his long history of verbal missteps.
As president, Biden has had some scary things to do. For example, a year ago, he forgot the name of Scott Morrison, then-Australian prime minister, when speaking to him during a video conference about the new defense partnership, and called him “” that guy.”
Critics have questioned whether his age is an obstacle for Biden, the oldest person to hold office. In an interview this month with 60 minutesBiden says people shouldn’t look at his age but at the job he’s doing.
“I think it has to do with how much energy you have and whether the work you are doing is consistent with what anyone of any age can do,” he said.
“There aren’t things I don’t do now that I’ve done before, whether it’s physical, mental, or anything else,” Biden said. When interviewer Scott Pelley noted his string of legislative successes, he joked: “How could an old man do it?”
