A Trump supporter paid President Biden a backhanded compliment after the commander in chief wore a campaign hat worn by his former rival Donald Trump during a lively exchange.
Biden was briefly caught wearing a bright red Trump capWhile speaking with firefighters in Shanksville, Pennsylvania – where United Flight 93 crashed on 9/11.
“I’m proud of you now, old fart,” the older gentleman jokes as Biden puts on the MAGA hat.
In an extended video clip, Biden asks the man if he wants his autograph. The man responds by asking the president if he remembers his own name.
Biden responded sarcastically, “I don’t remember my name, I’m slow.” The audience laughed out loud.
The vaudeville jokes continued when the man called Biden an “old fart,” to which the commander in chief replied, “Yeah, I’m an old man… I bet you know a lot about that.”
In a longer video clip, Joe Biden had a lively exchange with a Trump supporter while wearing one of his former rival Donald Trump’s MAGA hats, even receiving a backhanded compliment about it
After signing the hat, he joked to the man that he needed his Trump MAGA hat, which the man quickly offered him.
Biden placed the Trump 2024 hat on top of the other hat he was wearing, to loud applause.
The Trump supporter responded, “I’m proud of you now, old fart,” as the two men shook hands.
Biden had the last laugh, however, joking, “Just remember, don’t eat dog or cat!”
The president was referring to a claim Trump made during last night’s debate in which he suggested that migrants in Springfield, Ohio, are eating people’s pets.
The viral moment was originally explained by a White House spokesperson, who said it was meant to show “bipartisan unity.”
Biden, Trump and Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris attended multiple 9/11 memorial ceremonies on Wednesday, a day after Trump and Harris met for the first time on the debate stage.
The president made his move 24 hours after he caused a stir Tuesday night when he left the White House for New York by saying he would “do 9/11.”
President Joe Biden briefly wore one of former President Donald Trump’s red MAGA hats, a move the White House said was intended to show “bipartisan unity”
Another angle of the video shows the 81-year-old commander in chief wearing his signature red hat as a gesture of “bipartisan unity”
Biden told family members at the firehouse that the US needed to return to the unity shown after the attacks that killed 2,977 people
“At the Shanksville Fire Station, President Joe Biden spoke about the bipartisan unity of the country after 9/11 and said we need to get back to that,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said on X. “As a gesture, he gave a hat to a Trump supporter, who then said POTUS should put on his Trump hat in the same spirit.”
“He only wore it for a short time,” Bates added.
By the time Bates got his message out, Trump’s supporters were claiming the 81-year-old Biden was so “senile” he didn’t realize what the hat said.
‘Attendees tell me Joe Biden looked totally senile at the event, even putting on a red TRUMP 2024 hat while [Harris] “There was no one in the room,” wrote Laura Loomer, a conspiracy theorist and key Trump ally.
“One of the attendees asked Biden, ‘Do you even know your name?’” she added, repeating an attack on President Trump that she made during Tuesday night’s debate.
The Trump War Room X Account shared a video of Biden putting on the hat, writing, “Kamala did so bad at last night’s debate, Joe Biden just put on a Trump hat.”
The reporters who follow the president everywhere were not invited, because Biden and Harris were there to meet with family members affected by the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001.
Pennsylvania is the state to win in the 2024 election, and the trip to Shanksville put Biden and Harris in Trump territory.
In the broader Somerset County region, Trump was voted 78 percent to Biden’s 21 percent four years ago.
Biden attends the 23rd anniversary of 9/11 commemoration with Vice President Kamala Harris, former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, former President Donald Trump and Ohio Senator and vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance
From the route Harris took, signs of support for the Republican candidate were visible.
A man attending the ceremony at the Flight 93 Memorial wore a vulgar anti-Harris T-shirt.
Harris is expected to return to western Pennsylvania on Friday with a campaign stop in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, located in nearby Cambria County.
Cambria County is experiencing one of the most dramatic shifts from Democrats to Republicans in the country.
For many years it was represented by the late Democratic Representative John Murtha.
In 2008, President Barack Obama won the county by a hair: 50 percent, to Sen. John McCain’s 48 percent.
During the 2020 election, support in the county ranged from 68 percent for Trump to 31 percent for Biden.
Trump landed at Johnstown Airport shortly after Biden and Harris visited Shanksville.
Kamala Harris looks on during the memorial ceremony at Ground Zero, with Biden in the background, the day after her debate with Trump
The former president also attended a ceremony at Ground Zero in New York City alongside Biden and Harris.
During the service, the widow of a New York firefighter killed on September 11 criticized Biden for his “flippant” comments.
Joanne Barbara referenced the president saying he would “do 9/11” when asked by reporters about his plans for honoring Americans killed in the worst terrorist attacks in the country’s history.
Her husband Gerard “Jerry” Barbara, an assistant fire chief with the FDNY and a firefighter for 31 years, was killed when the South Tower of the World Trade Center collapsed while he was trying to rescue people trapped inside.
“The elected officials here today pay their respects and honor to the families of September 11th, or, in the words of our President, ‘do 9/11,’ a rather lighthearted remark,” Barbara said during a speech at a ceremony honoring her late husband.
“Remember that the families of the victims of 9/11 go through this every day,” she continued, describing the grief of those who lost loved ones in the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001.
She was also highly critical of the “scandalous” settlement that was nearly approved for the alleged masterminds of the 9/11 attacks who were being held at Guantanamo Bay.