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President Biden wanted to conclude his appearance with the NBA champion Golden State Warriors taking a knee with Vice President Kamala Harris.
But she refused and chuckled, “I’m not going to do that,” leaving the 80-year-old at the front of the stage, alone, in an awkward end to the photo shoot.
The president’s gesture was met with laughter from the team and sounds of surprise from the audience, including from their No. 2 who did not want to join the kneeling position that became popular among athletes during the Black Lives Matter protests.
The entire ordeal was disconcerting, with terrified players reaching out to help the president up when it appeared he was almost toppling over, but Biden only pretended to struggle and landed in what he thought was an athletic pose with a smile.
Earlier in Tuesday’s event, Biden also made a mistake by appearing to forget Harris’ first name, calling her ‘CAM-a-la’ instead of the correct pronunciation of ‘COMMA-la’.
Vice President Kamala Harris (right) refused to take a knee with President Joe Biden (left) during a photo op with the reigning NBA champion Golden State Warriors at the White House on Tuesday.
Coming out of his kneeling position, the players thought the president was falling and reached out to help, but it appeared Biden was joking and landed in a defensive crouch.
Biden and Harris, 58, couldn’t seem to find a good spot during a team photo op, wrapping up a White House celebration for the reigning champions.
“I’ll tell you what,” Biden said before taking a knee on a small platform in front of the team.
Harris, the first woman and minority to serve as vice president, sought the players’ help to get down from the platform and pose in front of Steph Curry, but some audience members thought she was looking for help in taking a knee with the president. leading to another round of laughter and scattered applause.
The vice president gave a double thumbs up and then switched to a one-handed number 1 sign as Biden knelt beside her on the platform as audience members and photographers snapped pictures.
Rising from his kneeling position at the end of the photo call, Biden awkwardly landed in a defensive squat, earning another round of applause from the amused attendees.
Harris laughed as Biden knelt down and said, “I’m not going to do that” before walking down from the podium to pose near Steph Curry.
Biden is shown kneeling with a thumbs up as Kamala stands with one foot on the platform as they pose with the Golden State Warriors NBA team.
Professional athletes began taking a knee during the National Anthem at the start of their games in 2016, protesting racial inequality and police brutality against minority communities.
What later became known as a Black Lives Matter-linked protest was highly controversial among the sports community, as attendees and spectators began to ‘boo’ their own teams when they took a knee.
The awkward interaction between Biden and his vice president came after he forgot how to pronounce Harris’ first name during his remarks celebrating the Golden State Warriors.
The President pronounced Kamala as ‘CAM-a-la’ instead of the correct pronunciation of ‘COMMA-la’.
Biden, during remarks at Tuesday’s celebration, mispronounced his vice president’s name, calling her ‘CAM-a’la’ instead of the correct pronunciation of ‘COMMA-la’.
While people frequently mispronounce the vice president’s name, it’s usually not the way the president did. The most frequent incorrect way of saying Harris’ given name includes a blunder in inflection, resulting in ‘EAT-a-la’.
“As Kamala said, we are all closely monitoring the storms, the floods, the mudslides across California,” Biden said as he mispronounced the name of his 58-year-old second-in-command.
The name Kamala was inspired by her mother’s South Indian heritage, and Harris set the record straight on saying her name multiple times.
In a video from her 2016 Senate campaign, Harris released a video showing children saying her name the wrong way and then the right way.
‘It’s not CAM-EL-UH. It’s not KUH-MAHL-UH. It’s not KARMEL-UH.
In a 2019 memoir, Harris wrote: ‘[M]i name is pronounced ‘comma-la’, like the punctuation mark. It means ‘lotus flower’, which is a symbol of importance in Indian culture.’
Biden’s gaffe on Tuesday came as the president and vice president hosted the NBA champion Golden State Warriors with a celebration at the White House.
As the oldest US president in history, Republicans have often questioned whether Biden has the mental acuity or physical fitness to continue serving as commander-in-chief.
The reigning NBA champion, the Golden State Warriors basketball team, presented the president and vice president with jerseys. Biden’s was number 46, since she is the 46th president, and Harris was number 1, probably because she is the first woman and minority vice president in US history.
Biden’s defenders say he is prone to mistakes and have pointed to his chronic stutter, which they say was worse as a child.
Biden has not backed down from suggestions that he is preparing to launch a re-election campaign for the 2024 race, and that he would run again with his current vice president.
But Tuesday’s blunder isn’t the first time Biden has stumbled when talking about his vice president, and he has now referred to her as president twice.
Earlier this month, during a press conference ahead of his trip to the southern border, Biden said, “President Harris led this effort to make things better in the countries they’re leaving from.”
While everyone makes mistakes, this was at least the second time Biden had made this mistake.
“Happy birthday to a great president,” Biden said in October 2022 when wishing his number 2 a happy birthday during a Diwali celebration.
Another birthday-related error occurred Monday, during a Martin Luther King Jr. Day breakfast, when the president forgot the name of the birthday girl.
Martin Luther King III’s wife Arndrea Waters King’s birthday fell on MLK Day this year, so Biden said during breakfast remarks that he wanted to sing her the happy birthday song.
When it was time to put her name on the song’s verse, Biden muttered into the microphone and appeared to start saying the name “Valerie.” There was laughter throughout the room.