Former Vice President and presidential hopeful Joe Biden brushed off Donald Trump’s “Sleepy Joe” nickname for him last Friday. When asked about it by a reporter during a stop for pizza at Gianni’s in Wilmington, Del., the 76-year-old Biden laughed and said, “Everybody knows Donald Trump.” He went on to take a shot at the president. “If we give Donald Trump eight years in the White House, he will forever and fundamentally alter the character of this nation,” he added, seeming curiously to invoke the words of his former boss, who vowed to “fundamentally transform the United States of America” on the eve of the 2008 election.
Since Biden’s reaction to the nickname, others have weighed in, among them Nashville comedian Jesse Case, who according to Newsweek quipped, “Sleepy Joe, Crazy Bernie, Pocahontas. He just writing a Disney movie?”
But those dismissing Trump’s derisive nickname seem to be forgetting Biden’s ill-timed siesta during a budget speech by Obama in 2011, when the then-vice president was three years younger than Trump is now. CBS News, one of the major outlets that captured Biden’s snooze, joked:
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
Vice President Biden seemed to catch up on some sleep during President Obama’s budget speech Wednesday. Or was he just deep in thought about how to solve Washington’s fiscal problems?
But those who insist it happened a long time ago and is now water under the bridge should take a gander at a video of Biden’s speech Monday in front of the International Association of Fire Fighters in Pittsburgh. Pay attention in particular to the fellow in a yellow t-shirt over Biden’s left shoulder.
Looks like it could be a long road ahead for Joe Biden. pic.twitter.com/gyHmgvOLsj
— Kyle Morris (@RealKyleMorris) April 29, 2019
Maybe instead of “Sleepy Joe,” Trump should rechristen Biden “Sleep-inducing Joe.”
