The Gaffe Worthy Only Of Late Night Comedians

The Gaffe Worthy Only Of Late Night Comedians

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Janet Ybarra
Democrat
Former Washington Journalist
Contributor on The Bipartisan Press

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President Biden, of course, long has been known for his propensity towards verbal gaffes.

So it will surely go down as one of the great ironies of Joe Biden’s term in office, that the first great gaffe of the Biden presidency didn’t actually come from Biden himself.

Rather, it came from the Senate’s rookie Democratic majority leader, Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York.

Schumer stood addressing the Senate Friday from the Senate floor on the matter of the upcoming impeachment trial of former president Donald Trump related to his incitement of the deadly January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol.

Given that some Republicans would prefer that Trump’s trial be done away with, in moving forward with it, Schumer was entirely serious in discussing how he intends it to move forward.

“The Senate will conduct a trial of the impeachment of Donald Trump. It will be a full trial. It will be a fair trial. But, make no mistake, there will be a trial, and when that trial ends, senators will have to decide if they believe Donald John Trump incited the erection… insurrection against the United States,” Schumer said.

From the look on his face from the moment he said it, Schumer was aware of his mistake. However, rather than stop his remarks, call attention to his mistake in any way, he chose to maintain his dignity as was entirely appropriate for the US Senate.

And, other than perhaps the late-night comedians and hosts picking up on what can only be called the sophomoric humor of the situation, that’s where it should have ended.

There was clearly nothing intentional or political about Schumer’s obvious and unfortunate slip of the tongue.

But that didn’t stop a few second- and third-tier news outfits deciding to make something of the incident. That included both of the tabloids back in Schumer’s native New York City, including the Rupert Murdoch-owned right-wing New York Post:

This going to be hard to live down.

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer got a rise out of lawmakers on the Senate floor Friday when he fumbled his words and said that they will have to decide if former President Donald Trump incited the “erection” against the US.

The fact is that for the people trying to make more out of this than what it was — a mistaken slip of the tongue — it says more about them than it does Schumer, who through it all sought to maintain the dignity of the Senate.

And, frankly, if this is the worst “scandal” of his tenure as Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer will be just fine.

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