How clumsy! First Lady Jill Biden finds herself begging for applause after the speech line falls flat with the Washington DC crowd
- First Lady Jill Biden, 71, spoke at the Reagan Institute Summit on Education when she suffered the goof while speaking about uniting the two sides of the political aisle
- “I have visited red states and blue states and found that the common values that unite us run deeper than our divisions,” she said, followed by silence.
- Biden suffered a similar blunder in 2019 when his ‘applause line’ fell flat during her husband’s election campaign.
Jill Biden was left quiet and begging for a reaction after a tough crowd failed to respond as the First Lady had hoped.
Biden, 71, spoke at the Reagan Institute summit on education on Thursday when she suffered the gaffe while talking about uniting right and left.
“I have visited red states and blue states and found that the common values that unite us run deeper than our divisions,” she said, followed by silence.
A flash of confusion crossed the First Lady’s face before she took the awkward silence and joked, “And, uh, I thought you could clap for that.”
It wasn’t the first time Biden suffered an awkward pause during his speech. In 2019, the professor’s “line of applause” failed in Iowa after she promised her husband to stand up to the NRA.
First Lady Jill Biden, 71, spoke at the Reagan Institute Summit on Education when she was gaffed while talking about similarities between right and left
A flash of confusion crossed the First Lady’s face before she took the awkward silence with the step and joked: ‘And, uh, I thought you could clap for that’
“Finally, someone is standing up to the NRA and keeping our children and our schools safe,” she said at the time of her husband.
She was met with blank stares and a silent audience before throwing up her arms and saying, “That’s my applause line, come on.”
The audience immediately lit up, laughing alongside Biden as she continued her speech.
Biden, an English professor at Northern Virginia Community College, attended the RISE conference, which welcomes educators from across the country. This year’s conference focused on “America’s recovery and resilience,” according to the Reagan Foundation.
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and educator Sal Khan, among others — including members of Congress and education secretaries — have attended the event over the years.
Biden previously attended the event in 2018 when she was second lady.
The First Lady thanked the Reagan Institute on Twitter for allowing her to speak, despite her gaffe, writing, “Thank you @ReaganInstitute for bringing together leaders from across the country to talk about the future of education . Building pathways to well-paying jobs isn’t a red question or a blue question — it’s an American question we can all unite around.
