‘Cool machine’ Biden is making a new one. Are candidates’ blunders important?

WASHINGTON — At a campaign fundraiser Wednesday hosted and attended largely by Asian American donors and lawmakers, President Joe Biden described three Asian countries, including U.S. ally Japan and an emerging partner, India, as “xenophobic.”

Biden, who credited immigrants with fueling the U.S. economy, then attributed “xenophobia” as a reason why the economies of Russia, China, Japan and India were struggling.

Except: India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, with gross domestic product growing 8.4% in the last three months of 2023.

Biden, who has called himself a “gaffe machine,” made a point about “freedom, America and democracy.”

“You know, one of the reasons our economy is growing is because of you and many others. Why? Because we welcome immigrants,” he said. “We look at – the reason – look, think about it. Why is China stagnating so badly economically? Why does Japan have problems? Why is Russia? Why is India? Because they are xenophobic.”

He added: “They don’t want immigrants. Immigrants are what makes us strong.”

Biden is certainly not the first politician to make a blunder.

At a summit in Washington DC last year, former President Donald Trump claimed Biden would “plunge the world into World War II” and confused Biden with Barack Obama, bragging to the crowd that he was leading Obama in the 2024 election polls.

Trump has called Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán the leader of Turkey and confused his United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, a Republican Party rival, with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“You know, by the way, they never report the crowd on January 6,” Trump said, addressing the 2021 Capitol riot at a rally before this year’s New Hampshire primary. “You know, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley… Nikki Haley was in charge of security. We offered her 10,000 people, soldiers, National Guardsmen, whatever they wanted. They rejected it.”

Trump was still coasting to victory over Haley in the primaries.

While focusing on candidates’ blunders, do the press and social media influence the course of a campaign? Do candidates’ blunders even matter?

In the age of Trump, voters have become accustomed to heated rhetoric − and rhetorical clumsiness − that would have been considered remarkable a generation ago, said William FB O’Reilly, a Republican strategist.

More: ‘Permanently barred?’ Not! Donald Trump is reaching out to wealthy Nikki Haley donors

“Voters are now much more likely to see the bigger picture and put aside everyday mistakes,” he said. “Furthermore, the vast majority of voters already know who they are voting for, and almost nothing will change their minds. Think of Trump postulating about shooting someone on Fifth Avenue: he turned out to be right.”

Trump told an audience in Iowa in January 2016, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot someone, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, okay?”

Wild or completely wrong statements are not exclusive to Biden and his billionaire enemy.

Former President George W. Bush once condemned the “unjustified and brutal” invasion of Iraq, when he was referring to Ukraine. (Bush is the one who invaded Iraq in 2003.) There’s even a Wikipedia page dedicated to ‘Bushisms’ – a catch-all for his linguistic stumbles.

The age factor

Gaffes matter to the extent that they reinforce a candidate’s weakness, said Melissa DeRosa, a Democratic strategist.

“Trump makes as many mistakes as Biden, but because of the vulnerabilities surrounding the perception of Biden’s age, it hurts him more when he makes mistakes because – fairly or unfairly – it reinforces a negative element that resonates with the public.”

According to an ABC News/Ipsos poll conducted in February, 86% of Americans think Biden, 81, is too old to serve another term as president, while 62% think Trump, 77, is too old. The poll was conducted after Special Counsel Robert Hur called Biden “an older man with a bad memory,” suggesting age will remain a factor in the 2024 election.

More: How old is Trump? Here’s how old the former president will be on Election Day 2024.

More: How old will Joe Biden be if he is re-elected president in 2024? This one graph breaks it down.

Voters forgive, forget, ignore

While Biden may have gotten off to a rocky start marking Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, which is celebrated in May, the comment barely registered with most event attendees this week, said Shekar Narasimhan, an organizer of private fundraising.

“The way I heard him was contextual. He contrasted with Donald Trump, who wants to deport many millions of people, including AAPIs, by saying, ‘look what happens when you’re xenophobic,’” said Narasimhan, an Indian immigrant and founder of the AAPI Victory Fund, a political action committee . .

Biden “contrasted with other countries that have more closed immigration systems,” he said. “We haven’t heard of a single Japanese American, or for that matter Indian American, saying, ‘Oh, what the hell did he say?'”

When he lumped India in with other economies, he said he “didn’t understand the comment.”

More: Why does Donald Trump keep calling President Biden ‘Obama’ during his campaign?

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said “the broader point” Biden was trying to make was that the US is a “nation of immigrants – that’s in our DNA.”

While a high-profile gaffe may have damaged a candidate in recent decades, it won’t have the same lasting impact, O’Reilly said.

“The news cycle moves so fast now that invariably some other intriguing news nugget comes along to save them,” he said. “If President Biden had called Americans xenophobic, the damage could have continued, but in this case that should not happen. There are a lot of other interesting things happening.”

The fragment podcast: Biden’s blunders, Trump’s blunders: are they a sign of cognitive decline?

Biden’s comments came just three weeks after the White House hosted Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, with Biden praising the “unbreakable alliance” between the US and Japan.

The White House hosted Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi for a state visit last summer as the country seeks to foster deeper ties with the country to counterbalance China.

“Our allies and partners know very well how much respect this president has for them,” Jean-Pierre said. “It’s clear that we have a strong relationship with India, with Japan.”

Lis Smith, a Democratic strategist, said gaffes matter when they amplify a candidate’s existing vulnerabilities.

“When Mitt Romney dismissed 47% of the country as slackers, it reinforced the perception that he was completely out of touch with the country,” she said.

Contributors: Joey Garrison

Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is the White House correspondent for USA TODAY. You can follow her on X, formerly Twitter, @SwapnaVenugopal

The age factor

Voters forgive, forget, ignore

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