Republicans mocked President-elect Joe Biden after he mispronounced Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary nominee Xavier Becerra's name and title on Tuesday. The gaffe came while Biden announced his pick for health and Covid-19 taskforce in Wilmington, Delaware.
Becerra, the California attorney general since 2017, secured a spot in Biden's team. The president-elect's announcement about Becerra was marked with two slip-ups. "For Secretary of Health and Education Services, I nominate Xavier Bacheria," Biden said, wrongly pronouncing his surname and the title of his position in the health team. The 78-year-old quickly apologized and pronounced Becerra's surname and the title correctly.
However, Republicans took to Twitter to mock Biden for the slip-up. "Joe Biden defeated AGAIN by the Teleprompter. 'For Secretary of Health and Education Services, I nominate Xavier Bacheria.' Joe Biden is a mess. It's Health and Human Services. And it's Xavier Becerra. Biden doesn't know the cabinet office or name of the official," tweeted Steve Guest, who is rapid response director of Republican National Committee.
Quoting Guest's tweet, Matt Wolking, who is deputy director of communications for Rapid Response for President Donald Trump's 2020 campaign wrote on Twitter, "My god... it's like he's hearing about his pick for the first time."
'Kamala's Wife' and 'Poor Boys'
This is not the first time Biden's goof-ups have attracted attention from Republicans and Trump supporters, who have long claimed that the Democrat has dementia. In October, a video showed Biden struggling to answer questions asked by reporters during a visit to Pennsylvania.
Prior to that, another video showed him referring Trump as former President George W. Bush. Jill Biden, his wife, was seen mouthing "Trump" at least thrice so that Biden corrected the mistake. During the final presidential debate in October, Biden wrongly called far-right group Proud Boys as "poor boys."
Biden also left viewers perplexed in Pennsylvania during a campaign stop after he said he would "lead an effective strategy to mobilize trunalimunumaprzure." It remained unclear what he meant. In another incident, he called his then-running mate Kamala Harris' husband Doug Emhoff, "Kamala's wife."
