Former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, pictured in March 2019, apologized after mocking Joe Biden on Twitter
Former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, pictured in March 2019, apologized after mocking Joe Biden on Twitter AFP / SAUL LOEB

KEY POINTS

  • Sanders mocked Biden as he talked about the suffering of children with speech impediments and was rebuked
  • Sanders claimed she was unaware Biden stuttered as a child even though he's talked about it often
  • Biden used the exchange to raise campaign funds

Former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has apologized for mocking former Vice President Joe Biden for stuttering during Thursday night’s Democratic presidential debate.

Biden stuttered over the word “I” while speaking about a child with a speech impediment.

“The little kid who says ‘I can’t talk, what do I do?’” Biden said, affecting a stutter. “I have scores of these young men and women that I keep in contact with.”

"I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I hhhave absolutely no idea what Biden is talking about. #DemDebate," Sanders tweeted during the debate.

Biden’s Twitter account fired back, saying he has “worked my whole life to overcome a stutter” and encouraged others to show empathy.

“To be clear was not trying to make fun of anyone with a speech impediment,” Sanders tweeted. “Simply pointing out I can’t follow much of anything Biden is talking about.”

The rebuke resulted in Sanders taking down the original tweet and replacing it with one saying she didn’t mean to make fun of Biden.

Stuttering is a neurological condition with a genetic component, affecting about 3 million Americans.

This is not the first time Biden has been mocked for stuttering during a debate. After the second debate in July, Fox News edited his stutters into a montage, with Steve Hilton narrating: “As the right words struggled to make that perilous journey from Joe Biden’s brain to Joe Biden’s mouth, half the time he just seemed to give up with this somewhat tragic and limp admission of defeat.”

Biden suffered from stuttering as a child and often was bullied. He talks about his experiences on the campaign trail, using it to give hope to children with similar problems. He was even mocked by a teacher, a nun, who addressed him as “Mr. Buh-Buh-Buh-Biden ” while trying to get him to pronounce “gentleman.” Biden said the moment was humiliating in an interview with The Atlantic.

After the debate, Biden used the exchange with Sanders to raise campaign funds.

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