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Guest Post by “Poppy Fields”
I began the “Joe Biden Childhood Stutter Project” on May 6th.
I started it after reading Valerie Biden’s claim that Joe’s “childhood stutter” was the sole reason for her brother’s speaking challenges today.
Come on, man…
I’ve always been suspicious of the “stutter” excuse, but it was Valerie’s over-the-top defense of her brother’s “blunders,” that inspired me to take action.
The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
Here is Valerie’s comment regarding the stutter, printed on April 12, 2022, by the Daily Mail:
President Joe Biden‘s sister Valerie Biden Owens tore into ‘Trump people’ for making fun of the president’s sometimes halting delivery during speeches.
‘From the time he was a little boy, he stuttered,’ Owens told Elle in an interview published Tuesday. ‘This kid, he couldn’t string more than three words together at a time. So, I think when you see him pausing and the unpleasant people around this country, the right wing, Trump people say, “Oh, look at him. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” it is remnants of when he was a kid and stuttered.’
She added, ‘Humiliation has a long shelf life.’
Owens was asked by the women’s magazine what was one thing she wished the public knew about her brother.
The president’s boyhood stuttering problem is well documented, but Owens conceded that he’s still criticized when he ‘falters on a word.’
Like most of you, I’ve listened to countless media people and politicians push the infamous “childhood stutter” excuse to dismiss criticism of Joe’s cognitive decline.
But it was Valerie’s blanket statement that inspired me to investigate the much-ballyhooed stutter.
As I got started, I remembered a tweet I read a while back from filmmaker Mike Cernovich, where he wondered if any journalist had gone back and watched old Biden clips to see if the stutter actually existed beyond his “childhood” years.
Good question, Mike.
Not surprisingly, nobody in the mainstream media had done anything like that. I actually couldn’t find anyone who had listened to hours of Biden clips looking for his stutter.
But I found an LA Times opinion writer who wrote a piece called, “What others see as Joe Biden’s mental slips, I see as the tricks of a master stutterer.”
In his piece, Dan Roche says that while the rest of us see senility when Joe can’t remember a name or who his wife is, he sees a master class stutterer working his craft.
Here’s what Dan said:
Seeing Biden on stage takes me back to my childhood. I’ve watched him for years and recognize the familiar tricks. Noticed him struggling with a phrase or name he’s uttered a million times before.
I’ve heard him use overly complicated or quirky phrasing and immediately recognized the method of a master stutterer: the almost savant-like ability to rephrase a thought or paragraph, on-the-fly, to avoid a problematic word or syllable.
I’ve listened to his critics and heard echoes of my past. He’s senile, they insist. He forgot Obama’s name. He’s mentally defective. Dementia. But I know better.
At a campaign stop on March 5, Biden “forgot” Obama’s name, identifying him simply as “the last guy.” At other events he’s said, “President my boss.” Some see this as evidence of a man losing his mental faculties. I see the familiar trick of calling a last-second audible for an easier syllable or phrase, the in-the-moment wordplay stutterers use to navigate their speech.
Stuttering is fickle. A word might come naturally the first million times, then get stuck without warning. So we make substitutions. Sometimes it’s nicknames. Sometimes it’s slang that sounds awkward or out-of-place, like Biden uses.
[…]
As stutterers do, I found ways to manage it. Speech therapy helped a little. The real method was word craft similar to what Biden does, the self-trained ability to re-architect language in real time to avoid a word or syllable you know will stop you cold.
I will have something to say about Dan’s theory later… but first, I had to get started on my project.
Honestly, I didn’t know what I’d find.
Maybe this project would prove the “childhood stutter” impacted Joe Biden’s adult life, and honestly, cynical or not, I was very open to discovering that.
Or perhaps the stutter had very little or no impact on Joe’s adult life. Either way, I wanted to know the truth, and the American people deserved to know the truth as well.
After all, Joe’s cognitive issues have weighed heavily on the country. Polling here and here shows most Americans believe Joe Biden isn’t mentally fit to hold office.
But the media and Dems repeatedly tell us it’s just a “childhood stutter”…
Okay, so let’s find out once and for all…
When I first began this journey, I didn’t know how many hours of footage I would listen to, but I thought “100 hours” would be ideal.
Trust me, after watching just 7 hours of Joe Biden talking — he’s not the most interesting speaker — I knew 100 hours would be impossible, so I decided to go one video at a time and see where it took me.
Luckily, I work from home — I am a writer and a graphic designer — so I can listen to one clip after another while I do my work.
I always paused the clip when I had to concentrate on work, or just felt I wasn’t able to pay close attention. If life got hectic, I’d skip listening until I could refocus.
I went into this project thinking it was just about the stutter — and by “stutter” I mean an actual stutter — not Joe goofing up a word, or stumbling over his words as we all do every day.
I was looking for a real stutter.
But as I got into it, I found myself making notes on how he spoke overall, good and bad, his mannerisms, and even his moods.
I got so into it I saw “patterns” form, and could actually see Joe’s “political shtick” developing in his early years — and how he emotionally manipulated audiences, voters, and colleagues and how he used his charm to create this aww shucks “Blue Collar Joe” persona.
I also felt like I knew his parents, whom he quoted and talked about a lot. I started making notes on his political ideology as well, which has changed drastically over the years.
Overall, it was a fascinating project and “case study” of Joe Biden the politician… because when you watch 40+ hours of one person speaking, spanning over several decades, you get to know their persona rather intimately. Now, I don’t know if I’m an “expert” on Joe Biden, but I definitely know how the sausage is made.
For instance, early on, Joe Biden figured out how to use self-deprecating humor to ingratiate himself to voters and appear less threatening to his colleagues. Joe can be very funny and he used observational humor to connect with “regular” people.
He can also be very warm, and extremely kind, but look out if you say the wrong thing and make him mad — he will go “Jekyll and Hyde” on you so fast, it’ll make your head spin. Joe’s always had a quick and hot temper.
However, you didn’t see the temper much at the beginning. Back in the 80s, Joe was a really affable, idealistic guy who was popular on the left and right. “Bipartisan Joe,” they’d call him. He even flirted with “America First” ideals before it was ever a thing, although Joe’s always been a globalist and “New World Order” guy at heart.
But as with most everything in life, power corrupts and changes people.
The longer Joe stayed in politics, the more crass and cynical he became. His charming self-deprecating humor gave way to a braggadocios persona and his wide-eyed idealism turned into narcissistic entitlement.
One thing he said that struck me as noteworthy was during his 18th year in the Senate when he bragged that as committee chairmen he would now decide what the Senate discussed and voted on. And he also described himself as the “gatekeeper” of SCOTUS. You could literally see the power-energy glisten in his eyes as he spoke.
Clearly, “aww shucks Joe” was being replaced with this new swampier version.
The life cycle of a DC monster…
I began the Stutter Project by logging onto CSPAN.org and typing “Joe Biden” into the search box. I sorted my clips from “oldest to newest.” My goal was to investigate Joe’s speech patterns from the mid-80s through 2018. I thought those dates were a broad enough span to search for the stutter.
I used “notes” on my Mac to keep track of everything. I listed all the clips by date, oldest to newest. I wrote the title of the clip, length, link, and my thoughts and observations. If I found a “stutter” I’d place three asterisks next to the clip and note the time of the stutter in my notes so I could grab a video of it later.
And speaking of those notes, I will include all of them at the end of this piece.
I ended up watching and listening to about 43 hours of Joe Biden’s speeches, press conferences, debates, Senate rants, interviews, and other assorted tidbits. I even watched Joe walk in a parade for about 34 minutes, chit-chatting with parade-goers.
And what I found was that Joe Biden, while not the most eloquent or inspiring speaker, was actually a pretty good talker.
He always had a funny quip, and he didn’t take himself too seriously. He was charming, and he engaged the crowd whether they be attendees at a conference, reporters at a presser, or viewers at home, Joe always made everyone feel involved and connected.
One of Joe’s best assets was wearing different hats. He had an array of assorted speaking patterns and styles, depending on his mood and topic. He could be “aww shucks” Joe, or deeply passionate Joe, or laser-focused and serious Joe. He knew how to read a room and adjust himself accordingly.
There was no “fixated” type of speech pattern, as Dan Roche from the LA Times suggested. Joe Biden went with the flow and played off the crowd and the moment like a skilled musician playing a song.
Joe never displayed a “savant-like” ability to change the meaning of a phrase or word on the fly in any of the 43 hours I listened to.
As a matter of fact, Joe was a stickler about quoting things the right way, and getting all his facts straight, especially after being accused of plagiarism, which really bothered him.
When Joe spoke, he was prepared. He had his facts straight, and he always addressed or acknowledged all the people he needed to in the room.
Whatever so-called “master trickery” Dan Roche recognizes today in Joe Biden’s speeches did not exist from 1986-to 2018 in the 43 hours of clips I listened to.
Although, it’s fair to note that you can definitely hear and feel Joe’s age creep in during the later clips.
Joe Biden also spoke very rapidly. A lot of times he was up against a “clock” on the Senate floor or during a debate, etc. So he rattled off his facts quickly, and he was good at it.
Now, that’s not to say Joe didn’t botch or mispronounce words… he did. As I stated earlier, Joe was never an eloquent speaker… he’s always been “Scranton Joe,” a confident, tough-talking man’s man and a total schmoozer.
One particular clip caught my attention about halfway through the project. It was a 1994 clip titled: “Life and Career of Joe Biden.”
During the clip, Joe actually talked extensively about his childhood stutter.
Here’s what I wrote in my notes as I watched the clip:
Biden begins talking about how he overcame his childhood stuttering. He said he learned to adopt a cadence in his speech and didn’t let the panic overtake him. He said when he knew he was about to be asked something he would “seize up.” He said he learned to just take time when he talked and not rush, and that worked for him. He says that he cured himself.
I can say, after watching all these Biden clips, he rarely speaks “slowly.” He actually talks rather fast most of the time.
By 1960 Joe says he was nearly cured of the childhood stutter, and said that apart from some very occasional “stuttering,” nobody would even realize he’d ever had a stuttering problem.
He’s right. After watching 43 hours of clips, had I not known Joe Biden had a “childhood stutter,” I would have never pegged him as a guy with a stuttering problem in his past.
But the media has relentlessly pushed this “stutter story” since Joe’s cognitive issues came to light during the 2020 campaign.
In an article for Forbes titled “The President’s Stutter,” written by Jerry Weissman in May 2021, he alludes to some “understanding” between reporters today and Joe Biden about this lifelong stuttering challenge.
Here’s what Jerry wrote:
While President Biden was providing an update on the Colonial Pipeline cyberattack in a White House press briefing last week, he said:
“Now they have to safely and fully return to normal operations. And it’s going to take some time, and there may be hic- — hic- — hiccups, like I just had, along the way here.”
Biden broke into a big smile and several of the reporters in the room laughed along with him. The laughter was at his stumbles in his reference to potential stumbles—with the added irony that the president has been stutterer since his childhood.
That inherent burden, along with his age (the oldest person to assume the presidency), and his numerous public gaffes, have provoked accusations of impaired cognitive function.
If there is an understanding today between reporters and Biden over his childhood stutter, it’s not because they went back and actually investigated it — it’s because they were simply told about it.
In addition, the BBC actually claimed back in January 2021, that Joe Biden was the “first” president with a stammer, and completely ignored Obama’s very public presidential stutter.
Watch:
I am angered when I read and see things like this because Jerry and other reporters didn’t bother to watch hours of old Biden footage to confirm if Joe’s stutter truly impacted his adult life in a public way.
But what else do we expect? The media is all about tricks, aren’t they?
Speaking of tricks, the LA Times actually referred to Obama’s stutter as an “intellectual stammer.”
Here’s what journalist Meghan Daum said about Obama’s stutter:
But consider this: It’s not that Obama can’t speak clearly. It’s that he employs the intellectual stammer. Not to be confused with a stutter, which the president decidedly does not have, the intellectual stammer signals a brain that is moving so fast that the mouth can’t keep up. The stammer is commonly found among university professors, characters in Woody Allen movies and public thinkers of the sort that might appear on C-SPAN but not CNN. If you’re a member or a fan of that subset, chances are the president’s stammer doesn’t bother you; in fact, you might even love him for it (he sounds just like your grad school roommate, especially when he drank too much Scotch and attempted to expound on the Hegelian dialectic!).
The truth is Barack Obama stuttered or stammered — whatever you want to call it — a heck of a lot more during his adult years than Joe Biden ever did.
Watch:
What’s interesting is how the media hid Obama’s rather public stutter because he was an intellectual, and having a stutter was beneath him. But in 2020, the media pushed Joe’s phantom stutter, because he’s senile and having a stutter was an excuse for him.
So, on that note, let’s get into the main topic — Joe’s infamous childhood stutter.
First, do I believe Joe Biden stuttered as a child?
Yes.
After watching over 70 video clips of Joe Biden, do I think his childhood stutter plagued his adult life and impacted his career?
Absolutely not.
During the 43 hours of Biden footage, did I find any instances of Joe stuttering?
Yes.
Let’s get into it:
Over the 32-year span of videos I watched, from 1986 to 2018, I found about 8 seconds worth of Joe Biden stuttering.
The first incident I found was in 1991.
Watch:
Fifteen years later, in 2006 I found another example of Joe stuttering.
Watch:
Six years later, in 2012, I found another stutter.
Watch:
And finally, six years after that, in 2018, I found a clip where he stuttered twice.
Watch:
Watch:
According to experts at Colorado Stuttering Therapy, Joe’s speech patterns would be classified as “normal disfluency.” Meaning it falls in the category of average Americans who occasionally stutter less than 10 percent of the time when they speak.
In other words, we’ve all stuttered from time to time.
To be honest, Barack Obama stuttered publicly way more often than Joe Biden did.
Out of Joe’s five stuttering incidents I identified, the two most severe cases occurred in 2018.
That’s not surprising, since we know Joe has had tremendous challenges speaking these days. And his speech issues today go far beyond a typical “stutter.”
I’m not a doctor, but given the fears many Americans have regarding Joe Biden’s cognitive decline, I was curious to see if “stuttering” impacts Alzheimer’s and dementia patients.
Here’s what I found:
In the early stages of Alzheimer’s, individuals have difficulties recalling words or finding the right vocabulary to share what they would like to say. During this stage, there is oftentimes a loss of verbal fluency. Individuals may stutter, halt or find it difficult to finish sentences.
Advanced forms of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, may make it difficult to form or arrange words. This goes beyond “tip of one’s tongue” to aphasia, which is not being able to construct full sentences to find the right words.
Whatever issues Joe is dealing with today, this project revealed they’re not related to any childhood stutter that he publicly dealt with as a young, middle-aged, or mature man.
There’s no evidence to back up the media and Dem narrative that Joe’s speech challenges today are somehow linked to his childhood stutter. However, there is evidence proving Joe conquered his stutter, exactly as he said he did.
My project revealed, that while Joe Biden may have stuttered occasionally, overall, his adult speech pattern did not differ from an average American with normal disfluency, and he was not plagued by an inability to speak publicly during his young, mid, or later years.
His senior years, however, are a different story.
I believe Joe’s Handlers were fully aware of his cognitive issues heading into the 2020 campaign and used his well-documented “childhood stutter” story as a cover for his mental challenges, and to ingratiate Joe to the public. And of course, the media dutifully ran with the story, no questions asked.
In closing, I am really glad that I tackled this project and I hope it brings some clarity to the childhood stutter story.
I ended up doing the work that our media should have done back in 2019, but it was definitely interesting and I learned a lot about Joe Biden.
Below are all my notes and links to all the videos from this project:
The Joe Biden Childhood Stutter Project Notes:
June 1986 Senate debate and votes to override the President’s veto of arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?45851-1/senate-session
Joe spoke at the 1:21:34 mark. Joe’s support of Israel is crazy to hear, given how he and his party feel today.
Very passionate, strong. At the end, with one minute left he was rushing, flubbed a word, recovered quick.
No stutter.
July 1986 NAACP’s 77th Annual Convention 44 min
https://www.c-span.org/video/?150153-1/naacps-77th-annual-convention
Joe uses a “black cadence” when he speaks to this NAACP group. No stutter at all.
September 1986 Nuclear Arms Race 1 hr
https://www.c-span.org/video/?150439-1/nuclear-arms-race
Not his greatest speech. Joe Biden stumbles over his words quite often in this speech, uses the wrong words. No stutter.
February 1987 Delaware campaign speech 26 minutes
https://www.c-span.org/video/?3461-1/biden-campaign-speech
He lies and said he marched for civil rights. Said he’s not a very “religious” guy.
He made one mistake pronouncing a word, quick recovery. No stutter.
February 1987 California State Democratic Convention 39 min
https://www.c-span.org/video/?3315-1/biden-campaign-speech
A small flub with his words at start, nothing he couldn’t easily recover from. Another small flub, not a stutter, just has a hard time reading and speaking, but recovers very quickly without issue.
No stutter.
April 1987 presidential campaign appearance 52 min
https://www.c-span.org/video/?3683-1/biden-campaign-appearance
Joe gets really, really nasty with a reporter who questions his schooling and grades. Joe actually tells him “I think I have a higher IQ than you”… he’s really angry and offended… that’s something we see later in 2022, with a much older, very angry Biden.
No stutter.
June 1987 Biden Announces Run for WH
https://www.c-span.org/video/?3310-1/biden-announcement 43min
Joe spoke pretty good here. No issues to speak of. No stutter.
July 1987 Bork Opposition 59 min
https://www.c-span.org/video/?98734-1/bork-opposition
Biden has a lot of “uhhs and ahhhs” and trips over what he’s trying to say from time to time, but no stutter.
August 1987 Confirming Supreme Court nominees 58 min
https://www.c-span.org/video/?151012-1/senator-biden-speech
Joe thinks of himself as the “keeper of the SCOTUS.” His words were thoughtful, more serious. No stutter.
September 1987 Biden News Conference 38 min
https://www.c-span.org/video/?3686-1/biden-news-conference
Slight stumble with a word, but not a “stutter.”
Biden did not read from a script, or prepared remarks. He was discussing accusations against him for “plagiarism” during his presidential campaign.
Biden actually makes the claim that he can “use his mouth in synch with his mind with no problem.”
No stutter.
September 1987 Bork Nomination Day One 34 min.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?10197-1/bork-nomination-day-1-part-2
Biden and Bork go back and forth and Biden flows nicely, no issues, to note. He’s got a strong command of the situation. No stutter.
September 1987 Biden Withdrawal Dem Primary 23 min.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?820-1/biden-withdrawal
Biden has Jill with him during this speech. She looks like she’s 17. This clip is a mess, jumping around, spliced, or just bad footage. Although I can hear Joe just fine.
Back in 1987 Biden looked at himself as the “gatekeeper” of the SCOTUS. No stutter.
October 1987 Senate Highlight 4 min
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4711304/sen-joe-biden
Joe has some normal/average stumbles here and there with words but he occasionally misspeaks or says the wrong word and quickly corrects himself. No stutter.
July 1988 Tribute to Slain Capitol Police Officers 7min.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?109479-1/tribute-slain-capitol-police-officers
Joe is speaking very slow and somber, due to the mood and topic.
It’s a very nice speech, from the heart. Feels raw and real. No stutter.
September 1988 Biden return to Senate after Brain Surgery 10 min
https://www.c-span.org/video/?4345-1/return-sen-joseph-biden-senate
Biden was very emotional. Spoke perfectly, thanked everyone for their “affection.” No stutter.
October 1998 Foreign Policy Issues 1 hour
https://www.c-span.org/video/?112688-1/foreign-policy-issues
Joe’s acting like a tough guy, claiming he’s telling leaders that they’re “thugs” to their faces. I don’t know about that. Joe is blunt, but I still find this hard to believe .
This speech is around the time of Clinton’s impeachment.
Joe is getting mad about Congress not working together. He’s yelling. Very emotional. Some reading flubs, he recovers quickly.
By the end, Biden sounds very sad, and almost defeated. He took questions after his speech was over. No stutter.
February 1989 Conference on Crime and Drugs 50 min.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?6119-1/crime-drugs
Joe’s using his brain surgery the same way he now uses Beau… He politicizes everything for empathy points. He’s speaking fine. Very on task, crisp, clear.
Joe’s speaking time was broken up. First bit was 15 min. Second part was 35 min.
He had no hiccups at all. No stutter.
July 1989 Democratic Anti-Drug Legislation 55 min.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?8556-1/democratic-anti-drug-legislation
Biden still mentioning his brain surgery, using self-deprecating humor to fluff off his failed presidential campaign.
No issues, spoke clear, clean, easy. No stutter.
July 1989 Flag Desecration Legislation 40 min
https://www.c-span.org/video/?8416-1/flag-desecration-legislation
It sounds so bizarre to listen to Joe Biden standing up for the American Flag. Really puts into perspective how far the Dems have gotten away from “patriotism”
This is when the Dems treated their radicals like fringe loons. Nowadays, those are the people running the party.
Joe can’t seem to pronounce the word “Unequivocally” but he don’t stutter. Just says it wrong.
He’s praising Bush. They really are the uni-party.
Biden took calls from the public on this interview, and he handles all of it well.
Biden screwed up which state a fellow senator was from.
No stutter.
August 1989 Congressional Address 41 min.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?8679-1/congressional-address
Joe Biden opens this speech with a funny joke. He’s in great spirits, very energetic. I am shocked at How Biden sounds like “todays GOP.” He’s talking a lot about “drug use” and crime. If he spoke this way today, the radicals would lynch him.
Small struggles pronouncing a word, he recovers fast.
He gets off his A-game in terms of reading his speech. Still flubbing words here and there. But nothing earth-shattering. Very normal for someone who isn’t a “gifted” speaker.
No stutter.
September 1989 Democrat Response 11 min.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?8997-1/democratic-response-drug-policy-address
Biden gives response to GW Bush “drug policy” speech. He spoke from his office, seated behind his desk. He’s reading off a teleprompter here, and unlike what we see today, Joe is doing fine.
He seems natural, and conversational. Joe actually sounds “America First” in this response. It’s crazy.
He made “6 Points” in this response. All good. No stutter
July 1990 Biden Announces Reelection Bid 15 min.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?13597-1/delaware-senate-campaign
Joe is trying for a 4th term. He’s speaking to a crowd of supporters. This is year 18 in the Senate. His R challenger spoke for the first 5 mins and then Joe took over. No problems speaking. He did well. No stutter.
August 1990 Delaware Senate Campaign 20 min.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?13620-1/delaware-senate-campaign
Joe’s seeking his 4th term. And of course, Joe uses his “brain surgery” as a reason why he’s seeking his 4th term.
Joe is speaking in this odd “hushed tone.” Really calm, really “zen-like” voice tone. His sister Valerie has always been his campaign manager.
This is one of the more “eloquent” chats I’ve heard Joe give. He’s not “blue collar Joe.” He sounds serious and polished.
Funny, Joe still gets common “sayings” wrong. A “two-edged coin” he quickly corrected himself with “sword.”
No stutter.
October 1990 Comment on Souter SCOTUS Confirmation 3 min.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?14451-1/congressional-reaction
Joe handled questions from reporters with ease. He deflected things he couldn’t answer very well. No speaking issues. No stutter
February 1991 Issues Facing The Nation 1 hr 52 min ***
https://www.c-span.org/video/?16243-1/issues-facing-nation
Biden talked about the New World Order in this speech. He’s always been a globalist. After a 45 min. speech, Biden took questions for the rest of the time from the audience. He did well on speech.
Joe fielded all questions and some were tough, like about his plagiarism and failed run for pres.
At the 1:28:28 mark the sound gets really low and has bad quality. I can hear Joe, but it’s a strain.
At around 1:27:38 (while sound is still poor) I did hear a stutter when he tried to say the word “occupy”
April 1991 Senate Role in the Confirmation Process 1 hr 8 min
https://www.c-span.org/video/?21084-1/senate-role-confirmation-process
Not the greatest sound quality on this one. Very muffled, but I can hear that Joe is strong with his wording.
A little screw up pronouncing the word “Lincoln.” No stutter.
June 1991 Violent Crime Control Act of 1991
1 hr 23 min
https://www.c-span.org/video/?18528-1/violent-crime-control-act-1991
Listening to Joe Biden in this discussion, he literally sounds like a full-blown Republican. He’s so hard on crime, and he’s so pro-cop. It doesn’t even sound like the same person we hear in later years.
Biden is literally talking non-stop for nearly an hour and a half, and he’s doing very well. Strong, passionate, very animated.
Back in 1991 Joe Biden still thought the 2nd Amendment was about “deer hunting” for the love of Christ.
No stutter.
September 1991 Thomas National Debate 10 min.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?21613-1/thomas-nomination-debate
He’s outraged about TV campaigns by the right, that paint him (Joe) to look like the “bad guy” in the Thomas confirmation hearing.
Joe’s speaking passionately, and quickly, and he’s doing so with zero issues at all. No stutter.
November 1991 Crime Bill Conference Committee Disagreement 30 min.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?22929-1/crime-bill-conference-committee-disagreement
Joe is very lively, very animated, very loud, very passionate… speaking strong, quickly, and with a great deal of purpose.
He’s spotting off facts, getting everyone’s names right, he’s on point. Joe is actually out-right arguing on the Senate floor, and he’s not missing a beat, he’s getting heated and hasn’t missed a step.
Joe’s also doing math on the fly… again, no issues. No stutter.
April 1992 U.S.-Israel Relations 38 min.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?25541-1/us-israel-relations
Biden is giving this speech to an audience rather late. It’s almost 10:30pm. He’s not “animated,” but he’s speaking very strongly and with a serious undertone and conviction.
Biden is really yelling now. He’s mad. He stumbled a bit over his words when he was really getting wound up, but recovered quickly.
Joe uses “Malarkey” in this speech and some weird voices. He’s also doing that creepy whisper.
It’s amazing what cheerleaders the left were for Israel back in the day.
Biden having trouble talking, but it’s because he’s coughing and appears to be choking a bit, like something caught in his throat. No stutter.
June 1992 Reforming SCOTUS Confirmation Process 1 hr 28 min
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4581759/sen-joe-biden-supreme-court-confirmation-process
Joe coughs a lot at the beginning of this speech. Joe mispronounced a couple of words just from normal stumbling as he read. He was less than “eloquent,” especially at the end. No stutter.
June 1992 START Treaty 10 min
https://www.c-span.org/video/?26783-1/start-treaty
Biden talking to Cheney and Colin Powell. Cheney was the Sec of Defense for GHW Bush. Powell was Chairman Joint Chiefs. They’re very friendly with Biden and vice versa. You wouldn’t know they were on “opposite sides.”
Lots of Uh, uh, uh, ah, ah, um, um, etc. Not stuttering, just sloppy speaking. But it’s not a speech, he’s going back and forth w/Cheney and Powell. No stutter.
September 1992 Status of Crime Bill 29 min.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?32801-1/status-congressional-crime-bill
Biden is speaking on the Senate floor. He’s speaking very animated, passionately, forcefully. Very clean, clear, and easy to understand.
Biden just tried to quote a sports team, and he botched it really bad. Had to stop and start over.
Joe talks fast. He doesn’t seem at all fearful or going slow at all.
He was doing great, the end of this senate rant is a mess, he’s misreading his notes a lot. But no stutter.
Joe is now yelling. He’s “mad” about crack use in kids and blaming GHW Bush… ironically, his son will become a crackhead in a few years…
No stutter.
January 1993 Sen. Joe Biden questions Zoe Baird 4 min
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4705533/sen-joe-biden-questions-zoe-baird-hiring-undocumented-workers
Joe’s very serious here. Very focused. And he’s speaking fast sometimes. Slow and serious at others. Very odd to hear Joe tell someone hiring an illegal is against the law. He’d be tarred and feathered if he said that today. No stutter.
January 1993 Zoe Baird/Biden exchange 6min
This clip is similar to the above. No stutter.
July 1993 Ginsburg Supreme Court Nomination 30 min
https://www.c-span.org/video/?45343-1/ginsburg-supreme-court-nomination
Another long, very fast-paced speech on the Senate floor from Biden. He’s got a lot to say, speaking quickly (he’s under a time crunch) and he’s using a lot of people’s names and reciting facts. He’s not missing a beat with that.
He’s tripping over his words, not in a “stuttering” way, just in a very typical way someone does when they’re rushing and reading.
He’s got some “uh, uh” in there as he tries to get his thoughts out, but nothing shocking or strange. He recovers quickly and just keeps going at this very fast pace.
No stutter.
May 1994 Life and Career of Joseph Biden 48 min
https://www.c-span.org/video/?56567-1/life-career-joseph-biden
At the 10:32 point, Joe Biden discusses his childhood stutter.
It was so bad when he was young, that he was “excused” from having to do any public speaking in class, which were a requirement. His stuttering taught him how difficult it is for people who have burdens they have no control over. He says he worked hard to overcome the stutter. (He gives an example of what his stutter sounded like) and it sounds like a proper stutter… Says it put him on a path to show that he could do anything that was put before him.
At the 14:22 mark, Biden begins talking about how he overcame his childhood stuttering. He said he learned to adopt a cadence in his speech and didn’t let the panic overtake him. He said when he knew he was about to be asked something he would “seize up.” He said he learned to just take time when he talked and not rush, and that worked for him. He cured himself.
I can say, after watching all these Biden clips, he rarely speaks “slow.” He actually talks rather fast most of the time.
By 1960 Joe says he was nearly cured of the childhood stutter and said apart from some very occasional “stutter,” nobody would even realize he’d ever had a stuttering problem.
No stutter.
August 1994 Crime Legislation Democratic Reaction 33 min
https://www.c-span.org/video/?59489-1/crime-legislation-democratic-reaction
News conference. Biden’s mad his crime bill did not pass. He’s slamming R’s and NRA. He’s speaking passionately, no problems. He’s very emotional. He’s even arguing w/reporters. And he gets really snarky…speaks very slow, annunciates very clearly… then starts talking really really fast. He’s in command here, fully.
He flips quickly, into smiling/laughing “aww shucks” Joe w/reporters. He’s all over the map.
Politically speaking, Joe Biden is unrecognizable here ideology-wise from where he is today. It’s mind-blowing how far to the fringe left he is. He’s so pro-cop, it sounds bizarre to hear.
Joe brings up his brain surgery again for no reason. He’s slamming his hands on the podium. Joe’s annunciation is very clear and very precise. He’s doing it on purpose.
No stutter
February 1995 Crime Legislation Revision 7 min
https://www.c-span.org/video/?63271-1/crime-legislation-revision
Joe speaks outside WH to reporters about his crime bill. He’s snarky and snippy towards the press. Overall, he seems annoyed and agitated. He just got snippy with Brit Hume and cut him off. He wants everyone focused on the Crime Bill, nothing else and he’s annoyed they’re not. He admits he’s “angry.”
Again, lots of passion, speaking quickly, and no issues at all.
No stutter.
February 1995 Reporters/Crime Bill 10 min.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?63349-1/crime-bill
Instead of saying “steam rolled” Biden said “steam rollered.”
Other than that, he spoke strong, fast, took questions on the fly, and didn’t miss a beat.
Biden says he likes the idea of keeping criminals in jail for longer. If he said that today, his head would be on a platter.
No stutter.
April 1995 Impact of Violence and Poverty 30 min.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?64803-1/impact-violence-poverty
Biden’s serious, passionate, and speaking in a very large grandiose fashion discussing “abuse against women.” Joe has a lot of facts, names, dates etc. he’s rattling off with no issues at all.
No stutter.
June 1995 Conflict in Former Yugoslavia 6 min.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?65620-1/conflict-yugoslavia
Joe is doing presser on Bosnia, a US pilot who was rescued. He’s speaking very fast, but very engaged, very in command. He sounds strong, and focused, he’s fielding reporters questions with no issues at all. No stutter.
September 1995 Appropriations Strategy 11 min.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?67346-1/appropriations-strategy
Joe took questions from the media. Had no issues. Very in command, speaking off the cuff, without missing a beat, and had complete control of his facts, names, dates, and no issues. No stutter.
September 1996 Delaware Senatorial Debate 41 min
https://www.c-span.org/video/?75509-1/delaware-senatorial-debate
Biden very passionate, heated debate. Lots of emotion, back and forth. No stutter.
October1996 Delaware Senatorial Debate 1 hr
https://www.c-span.org/video/?76375-1/delaware-senatorial-debate
The debate gets quite heated, and Biden is speaking fast, a lot, and very passionately. No stutter.
January 1997 Youth Violence and Drug Use Initiative 20 min.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?77975-1/youth-violence-drug-initiative
Joe is going very fast, has a lot of facts, and charts, going over all of it. This is the first time I’ve seen him put reading glasses on. There are some “uh uh” and “ahh ahh’s” and he is stumbling with some of his reading, but other than that, he does have a good command of the situation. Speaking very strongly.
Biden was really focused on keeping young people locked up for as long as possible. Imagine if he spoke like that today? His party would hang him in the town square. No stutter.
June 1997 Prospect of Nato Expansion 1 hr 15 min
https://www.c-span.org/video/?86974-1/nato-expansion
Mispronounced a word but recovered quickly. Generally speaking, seems a bit discombobulated early on but finds his groove.
Spoke for over an hour non-stop and took questions after the speech. No stutter.
November 1998 Clinton Impeachment Hearing Discussion 59 min.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?115431-1/impeachment-hearings
Biden is sick in this. He says he has a cold. His energy is low, and he sounds stuffed up.
Joe is really off his game. His reading sucks, he’s not focused. He should have stayed home in bed.
It’s really ironic to hear a Dem warn the country that impeachment better be done for “justice” not “politics.”
Joe did not speak well in this, he stumbles over his words, and while he didn’t officially “stutter” he did trip over his words and struggle to pronounce some.
His energy is very low, he’s not focused and I attribute it to him being sick.
Joe said if Clinton was standing in front of him he would have punched him in the nose for what he did because he was so “morally offended” hahaha. Okay…
No stutter.
October 1999 Senate Session 1 min
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4703277/sen-joe-biden
No stutter.
October 1999 Test Ban Treaty 10 min.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?152673-1/test-ban-treaty-ratification
Joe and several other senators are speaking to press about the nuke test ban treaty. Joe is serious and is in command. He looks very focused and sounds clear and concise. He’s going after Republicans and calling them out.
Biden took questions from reporters, and handled them just fine.
He seems annoyed with Republicans and wants to make sure people know that.
September 2001 US Foreign Policy 1 hr
https://www.c-span.org/video/?165936-1/us-foreign-policy
Mispronounced a couple of words, but quickly recovered. Spoke fine.
No stutter.
October 2001 U.S. Response to Terrorist Attacks 1 hr
https://www.c-span.org/video/?166841-1/us-response-terrorist-attacks
Joe did not stutter during this speech.
April 2004 Operations in Iraq 1 hr 10 min
https://www.c-span.org/video/?181375-1/operations-iraq
Joe struggles with “theocracy” and “theocratic” words. He figures it out, but it’s not a stutter. Biden talks about his bad temper in this speech. Ironic, we see a lot of that now in 2022, with his cantankerous ways and inability to control his emotions.
No stutter.
May 2004 Following Appearance on NBC Meet The Press 7min
https://www.c-span.org/video/?181882-1/sunday-talk-show-stakeout
No stutter.
November 2005 U.S. Policy Toward Iraq 56 min
https://www.c-span.org/video/?190042-1/us-policy-iraq
Joe Biden has a wicked coughing attack that starts around the 15:30 mark. He struggles to get his words out because of it. The coughing was so bad, that it made his eyes water. You can see him wipe a tear away a couple of times. No stutter.
December 2005 U.S. Policy in Iraq 26 min.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?190321-1/us-policy-iraq
No stutter.
March 2006 Third Anniversary of Iraq Invasion
38 min. ***
https://www.c-span.org/video/?191704-1/anniversary-iraq-invasion
Joe has some struggles tripping over his words, getting wrong words, and I detected a slight slur, and he’s speaking really, really fast.
Around the 5:40 mark, Biden stutters the letter “P” in the word “pretty” as he was trying to say “pretty well banged up.”
He recovers quickly.
Later, he does that creepy whisper.
November 2007 Iowa Jefferson Jackson Dinner 18 min
https://www.c-span.org/video/?202117-1/iowa-jefferson-jackson-dinner
Joe speaks at 1:44 mark
No stutter.
May 2007 Franklin Community Parade 34 min
https://www.c-span.org/video/?198089-1/biden-campaign-event
Joe Biden spends a lot of time chatting with parade-goers. And he really gravitates to the young girls, telling them they can’t date until they’re 30, and touching their shoulders.
But he invades pretty much everyone’s personal space.
Joe Biden was such a goofy political cornball, always saying “As my mom used to say…” and people back then ate that crap up. He also thanks people for “smiling.” Hokey, but it worked for him. He’s actually personable and very endearing when he wants to be.
He thanks people for being “nice” to him.
A lot of non-stop talking, he loses his train of thought at times, and recovers easily, but he gets quickly annoyed and rude with people who “challenge” him. No stuttering.
Aug 2008 Acceptance Speech 33 min
https://www.c-span.org/video/?280561-19/senator-joe-
He slurred a bit in 2008 speech. Confused some names, mispronounced Obama’s name as “O-bam-a” and other words. But recovered very quickly. No “stuttering” though.
He said during that speech that he HAD a “childhood stutter”… keyword “had.” One thing to note, every time I’ve heard Joe talk about his “childhood stutter” he always speaks of it in past tense, and never says it plagued him later or he battles it. He makes it seem as if he “conquered” it when he was younger.
July 2009 National Urban League Conference 40 min
https://www.c-span.org/video/?288152-1/vice-presidential-remarks-national-urban-league-conference
Biden, as usual, stumbles with his words but recovers quickly.
You’ll notice this at the 12:12-ish mark. It’s not a “stutter,” it’s just Biden not being an eloquent speaker, and getting himself verbally off track.
December 2010 Meeting With New Governors 5 min
https://www.c-span.org/video/?296857-1/presidential-meeting-governors
No stuttering.
April 2010 Stimulus and Energy Programs 31 min.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?293109-2/stimulus-energy-programs
Biden sounds very low energy, you can feel his “age” creeping up. But he had to rattle off a lot of names and he got them all right. Something he really struggles with today. As Joe gets older, I notice he likes to reminisce about the good old days.
There’s some slurring, his words drag in certain places. He seems sleepy to me after just watching a 1988 speech. No stutter.
May 2011 Remarks Following Deficit Reduction Meeting 2 min https://www.c-span.org/video/?299430-3/vice-pres-biden-remarks-deficit-reduction-meeting
No stutter.
June 2012 Biden in Waterloo, Iowa 46 min
https://www.c-span.org/video/?306789-1/vice-president-biden-waterloo-iowa
Joe is coughing a lot. Claims he has a “cold.” Sounds like he’s just choking. No stutter.
July 2012 NAACP 2012 Annual Convention 32 min
https://www.c-span.org/video/?307023-1/vice-president-biden-naacp-2012-annual-convention
Biden has some slight slurring problems, and issues pronouncing words. He recovers quickly. But it’s not “stuttering” at all. No stutter.
July 2012 Remarks on Colorado Theater Shooting 18 min
https://www.c-span.org/video/?307202-1/vice-president-biden-remarks-colorado-theater-shooting
No stutter.
August 2012 Biden in Danville, Virginia 41 min ***
https://www.c-span.org/video/?307584-1/vice-president-joe-biden-danville-virginia
Joe is very passionate in this speech. Has random bursts of anger… slight slurring in some of his words. He also confused his wife and sister, something he also infamously did on the 2020 campaign trail.
Joe has a slight stutter at the 23:55-ish mark with the word “the.”
By the way, this was the infamous “They gonna put you all back in chains” speech.
September 2012 Campaign Rally in Green Bay, WI 32 min
https://www.c-span.org/video/?307916-1/vice-president-joe-biden-campaign-rally-green-bay-wi
Joe sounds like he’s having issues speaking with his dentures, but not one single stutter.
October 2012 Biden Presser Iowa 3 min
https://www.c-span.org/video/?308632-1/vice-president-biden-press-conference-iowa
No stutter.
January 2013 Gun Violence Meeting 13 min
https://www.c-span.org/video/?310328-2/vice-president-biden-gun-violence-meeting
No stutter.
July 2016 Democrat National Convention Day 3/ 20 min
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4611410/vice-president-joe-biden
Joe gets confused with his words, but quickly corrects them. It’s not stuttering, it’s just using the wrong word in a sentence.
Joe had a lot of “weird” anger in this speech.
Some slurring here and there, but again, no stuttering whatsoever.
September 2016 Remarks on Middle Class 53 min
https://www.c-span.org/video/?414985-1/vice-president-joe-biden-delivers-remarks
Biden gets weirdly angry again, and does that strange “yelling” thing, to let us all know how “serious” he is. It’s awkward. He’s stumbling over his words a lot, but it’s not a stutter, there’s a “slurring” feel to some of his words. He sounds lethargic and slow in this speech.
Joe is also “whispering” a lot. He sounds very defeated in this speech. There is zero “energy.”
Noting he’s getting words wrong in this speech, too, and he doesn’t correct himself, he just keeps going.
No stutter.
November 2016 Weekly Presidential Address 5 min
https://www.c-span.org/video/?418845-1/weekly-presidential-address
No stutter.
May 2018 Middle Class and the Economy 56 min***
https://www.c-span.org/video/?445222-1/vice-president-biden-delivers-speech-middle-class-economy
Biden speaks much slower, some slurring, stumbles over his words. You can really hear his “age” in his voice, in how he speaks, but being this is 2018, compared to 2022, he sounds like a wordsmith.
He loses his train of thought. He gets confused, he can recover fairly well, but it’s apparent that he’s aged and is not at the top of his game.
At around the 23:21 mark Joe stutters his “s” in a sentence.
Joe “creepy whispers” in this speech, too.
He has some “brain freezes” while speaking.
Around the 53:21 mark there’s a very slight stutter once again with another “s.”
Poppy Fields is a writer, graphic designer, interior designer extraordinaire, and loves to cook.
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