‘Thank You For Having A Stutter!’ Rally Sign Prompts Biden to Reveal Trick He Uses In Speeches
President Joe Biden was moved by a supporter’s sign referencing stuttering, and shared his own experiences — including a trick he uses in speeches to overcome his own speech impediment.
Biden is well known to have struggled most if his life with a stutter, and has kept in personal touch with several fellow stutterers he has met on the campaign trail and in public life.
On Friday night, the president spoke to a crowd of supporters of Congressional Candidate Mike Levin who rallied at Miracosta College in San Diego, California, during which he noticed a sign in the crowd.
He ribbed the man over the small print, but was moved to share after members of the audience shouted the sign’s contents:
(Addresses an audience member.) I can’t read what you’re saying, kid; I’ll look at you later. Okay? (Laughter.) I have no idea what it says. He’s holding up a paper that has small print on it. I’m pretty good, but I —
AUDIENCE MEMBER: “Thank you for having a stutter!”
AUDIENCE MEMBER: “Thank you for having a stutter!”
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, God love you. (Applause.)
Well, let me tell you: You know, one of the things that — that I found: When I was a kid up until, quite frankly, I was in college, I used to stutter. And stutter is a really debilitating thing because people make — it’s the only — if I told you I grew up and I had a cleft palate and it was fixed, no one would laugh. If I told you that I grew up and I had a clubfoot and was fixed, no one would laugh. But when I say, which is true, I used to ta- ta- ta- talk — talk like that wh- wh- wh- when I w- wa- was a kid. It’s awful hard to ask the girl, “Will you go to the p- pr- pr- prom with me?”
AUDIENCE: Awww —
THE PRESIDENT: And it sounds funny, but guess what? It makes you feel like an idiot. And it’s —
AUDIENCE MEMBER: I love you, Mr. President!
AUDIENCE MEMBER: You’re not, Joe!
THE PRESIDENT: And, by the way — by the way — (applause) — I say to any stutter: It cannot define you. It will not define you. Period. (Applause.)
There’s 35 kids that I keep in contact with. Remember the young man at my — who nominated me? What courage it took for him. He’s a serious stutterer. You know, did you ever see the movie, “The King’s Speech”?
AUDIENCE MEMBERS: Yeah!
THE PRESIDENT: Well, the guy who actually managed that, he got a copy of the speech that the King used when he made that famous speech about World War Two — about the Germans. And he showed me. And he did exactly what I do. If you look at my speeches, there’s hashmarks along.
You learn — if you notice, people who can sing, they — some of them are terrible stutterers, because you got to get something down before you can begin to work on it.
And so they sent me a copy of the speech after it was all over — that.
And so, look, folks, I don’t want to get off on this, but the truth of the matter is there’s a lot of people — a lot of people in America — not just stutter — who need some confidence-building measures, need to be able to — across the board. And what’s that? That’s even more important, in my view now, as a consequence of what happened during the entire COVID crisis.
There’s more need for — how can I say it? — for mental assistance than any time in American history. (Applause.)
Watch above via C-SPAN.
