PresidentDonald Trump‘s daughter-in-law and campaign adviser,Lara Trump, this week made a crack about former Vice PresidentJoe Biden‘s speech patterns — seemingly unaware of hishistory with a stutter.
Lara,Eric Trump‘s wife, was participating on Thursday in a panel at a “Women for Trump” event in Des Moines, Iowa.
At one point while talking about the Democratic candidates seeking to challenge President Trump,said Lara, 37, “I feel kind of sad for Joe Biden. I’m supposed to want him to fail at every turn, but every time he comes on stage or they turn to him I’m like, ‘Joe can you get it out? Let’s get the words out Joe.’ The problem is that’s their front-runner.”
Biden, 77, has been open about his speech impediment, including in a recent article inThe Atlantic. He’s said he stopped stuttering decades ago.
The former vice presidentwas similarly candid to PEOPLE in 2011, recounting painful childhood bullying that he endured because of his stutter. “You get so desperate, you’re so embarrassed,” Biden remembered then.
Biden has also spoken out about how President Trump reminds him of the bullies who made fun of him for his speech impediment when he was younger.
Former White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders apologized in mid-Decemberfor making fun of Biden’s stutterin a now-deleted tweet.
“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,” she wrote on Dec. 19.
Biden responded: “I’ve worked my whole life to overcome a stutter. And it’s my great honor to mentor kids who have experienced the same. It’s called empathy. Look it up.”
John Lamparski/Getty; Ethan Miller/Getty
Lara’s husband, Eric, has also spoken derisively of Biden’s speech,once telling Fox News: “Biden can’t get through two sentences without stuttering.”
President Trump himself has a history of attacking his critics and rivals in blisteringly personal terms.
Biden didn’t respond to Lara’s Thursday remarks. (A Trump campaign spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.) But, on Twitter,he did share a videoof him speaking publicly with a message rallying against hateful rhetoric.
“Hate never goes away; it just hides,” Biden wrote. “And when leaders give it oxygen — as Donald Trump has done — it comes roaring back.”
source: people.com
