Former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was compelled to apologize to Joe Biden for mocking his imitation of a stuttering child during Thursday night’s debate.
Biden, who has had a lifelong battle with stuttering chronicled in the media, chose to do a full-on impersonation of a child with the same affliction.
“My wife and I have call list of somewhere between 20 and 100 people that we call at least every month to tell them, ‘I’m here,'” the top Democrat candidate explained at the end of the debate. “I give them my private phone number, they keep in touch with me.”
He then proceeded to confuse viewers by doing an extensive imitation of a stuttering child.
“A little kid, he says ‘I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I can’t, I-I-I can’t talk, w-w-what do I do?” Biden repeats.
RELATED: Video Surfaces of Joe Biden Praising Group Supporting Confederate Flag as ‘Fine People’
What is going on with Joe Biden during the final question of the night?#DemDebate pic.twitter.com/pItd9T1edT
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) December 20, 2019
Sanders Mocks
The fiery Sarah Sanders quickly mocked Biden in a since-deleted tweet that essentially amounted to the very same imitation.
“I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I hhhave absolutely no idea what Biden is talking about,” she wrote.
Biden responded on Twitter saying, “I’ve worked my whole life to overcome a stutter. And it’s my great honor to mentor kids who have experienced the same. It’s called empathy. Look it up.”
Sanders apologized almost immediately.
“I actually didn’t know that about you and that is commendable,” she wrote. “I apologize and should have made my point respectfully.”
The Atlantic recently chronicled Biden’s stutter, suggesting Americans might “be more understanding” of his speaking issues “if they knew he’s still fighting a stutter.”
RELATED: Thanks Dems! New Poll Shows Impeachment is Helping Trump in Battleground States
I actually didn’t know that about you and that is commendable. I apologize and should have made my point respectfully. https://t.co/fbmVAqDoWI
— Sarah Huckabee Sanders (@SarahHuckabee) December 20, 2019
Confused
Sanders was not, by any stretch of the imagination, the only one to note that Biden’s imitation of a stuttering child was a bit odd for a debate moment.
Former Saturday Night Live alum Norm Macdonald seemed genuinely confused by Biden’s act.
“Did Biden just make fun of a stuttering kid?” he wrote. “Or did he just stutter himself?”
Did Biden just imitate a differently abled person asking for help? Unrelated, is Trump Biden’s tether?
— Natasha Rothwell (@natasharothwell) December 20, 2019
Michael Harriot, writer for The Root, was a little more harsh tweeting: “Did Joe Biden just mock someone’s stutter? This old man is SO f***king stupid.”
While not alone, we can almost guarantee Sanders will be one of the few to apologize for her comments.
