President Biden appeared to suggest Friday that former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.) is either dead or divorced— and no longer his friend — in an apparent gaffe shortly after he told members of a Native American community that there is “nothing wrong with me.”
“Thank you to Sen. Mark Kelly, a great friend — who also was married to an incredible woman who was my friend,” the 81-year-old president told the Gila River Indian Community, just south of Phoenix.
Kelly, a Democratic senator from Arizona, has been married to Giffords — who is very much alive — since 2007.
The former congresswoman was shot in the head at a constituent forum in Tucson in January 2011 and miraculously survived.
Giffords resigned from the House of Representatives a year later to focus on her recovery.
Moments before that blunder, Biden stumbled over the name of the reservation he was visiting and oddly reassured the crowd that he was OK.
“I’m Joe Biden and I’m Jill Biden’s husband,” the president said at the top of his speech. “Gov, thank you for that introduction. And to the Gila Indian River Community — the Gila… the Gila … nothing wrong with me.”
He eventually got the name right.
“The Gila River Indian Community, [thank you] for welcoming me today,” Biden said.
The president appeared to have trouble reading the teleprompters in the merciless Arizona sun.
He whipped off his trademark aviator sunglasses as he began his remarks only to put them back on about a minute later.
“I’m putting these glasses on because I’m having trouble seeing this,” Biden admitted.
In his remarks, Biden apologized on behalf of the federal government for the historical policy of forcing Native American children into assimilation-focused boarding schools.
“I formally apologize, as president of the United States of America, for what we did,” the president said.
“It’s long, long, long overdue. Quite frankly, there’s no excuse that this apology took 50 years.”