Biden's bad joke: mocks the Irish by saying he's not "stupid"
The president also made a mistake regarding his wife's ancestry, giving the incorrect name of his father-in-law.
Joe Biden made an appearance in Delaware to address an audience of military veterans and federal officials. From the moment the president arrived, he couldn't stop making mistakes, faltering in his speech and stumbling on the stairs. However, his most controversial was undoubtedly the comments he made about the Irish.
In a poor attempt to get some laughs, the president not only insulted his own heritage but also dragged in his wife's Italian background.
"I may be Irish, but I'm not stupid," he said as he greeted Ray Firmani, a 102-year-old World War II veteran.
As if the joke wasn't offensive enough, he added: "I married Dominic Giacoppa's daughter, so now I have a little Italian in me, you know?"
The president's off-color comment has been a hot topic on social media, with many pointing out how ill-advised and insulting it was.
"That is true racism. It comes from within without thought. Not to offend someone or to make a joke, but just the reality of how he thinks of an ethnicity," opined one Twitter user, as reported by Republic World.
Another who was allowed to give his position was Jerry Dunleavy, a reporter for The Washington Examiner: "Just casual old school anti-Irish stereotyping," he wrote.
Biden gets wife's father's name wrong
The president's joke was not only problematic due to its insulting nature, but also because of the mistake he made about the family of his wife of more than four decades.
The First Lady is not Dominic Giacoppa's daughter as he claimed in his joke. The man the president referred to was actually her grandfather. Biden's father-in-law was Donald C. Jacobs.
"Joe Biden gets the dumbest things wrong," said Texas Senator Ted Cruz's Special Advisor for Communications Steve Guest.