President Biden’s State of the Union address was full of bizarre moments, but one that stood out to lawmakers and viewers alike was when the commander in chief went off script to shout about Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“Name me a world leader who would change places with Xi Jinping!” Biden yelled amid a portion of his speech about how democracies have become stronger, while autocracies have gotten weaker. “Name me one! Name me one!"
Biden: "Name me a world leader who would change places with Xi Jinping! Name me one!" pic.twitter.com/5Lm9JZFY3j
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) February 8, 2023
That comment was not included in a draft of the president’s speech released by the White House earlier on Tuesday.
Biden's bizarre comment 'Name me one world leader who'd trade places with Xi Jinping' was not in his staff-prepared remarks
— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) February 8, 2023
Sen. Marco Rubio said it was just one of the “bizarre” lines in his speech.
“There was a lot of bizarre lines tonight,” he said on Fox News. “One of them had to do with China, where he said, 'Name me one world leader,' he actually screamed into the camera, 'Name me one world leader that would trade places with President Xi. Basically any dictator on the planet would love to be president for life of the second-largest economy in the world and a rapidly growing military that can fly balloons over the continental United States and have nothing happen to them. And that joins a list of a lot of bizarre things tonight.”
He wasn’t alone in that assessment.
There are dozens of world leaders who would happily change positions with Xi Jinping, unfortunately. Biden shouldn’t have blurted out that confusing and bungled ad-lib on China. #sotu2023
— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) February 8, 2023
Biden: "NAME ME A WORLD LEADER WHO CHANGED PLACES WITH XI JINPING. NAME ME ONE! NAME ME ONE!"
— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) February 8, 2023
Obama, according to the NYT March 2011: "“It would be so much easier to be the president of China.’ ”
I have no idea what this means on China. It’s totally nonsensical and random yelling by an old man. pic.twitter.com/3r54mBR647
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) February 8, 2023
"Name me a world leader who'd change places with Xi Jinping. Name me one!"
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) February 8, 2023
I don't know, who's the leader of Malawi or Guyana? If it's true that China is rapidly becoming such a fearsome military/economic superpower, why wouldn't other leaders aspire to wield such awesome power
Biden briefly addressed the spy balloon saga, saying if Beijing "threatens our sovereignty, we will act to protect our country. And we did."
The spy balloon freely traversed the country for days before getting shot down by the U.S. military off the East Coast.