This article is more than 9 months old

This article is more than 9 months old

Sarah Sanders, Donald Trump’s former White House press secretary, faced a backlash for mocking Joe Biden after he appeared to reference his lifelong struggle with a stutter during Thursday’s Democratic debate.

Toward the end of the debate, Biden spoke about the people he meets while campaigning, who ask him for help. “My wife and I have a call list of somewhere between 20 and 100 people,” he said. “I give them my personal phone number.”

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Biden referenced a “little kid” who approached him and said, “I can’t talk, what do I do?” In describing the exchange, Biden appeared to impersonate the child’s stutter, which many read as a reference to his own experience. In a recent interview with the Atlantic, the former vice-president and 2020 frontrunner recalled his boyhood efforts to overcome his speech impediment.

Sanders issued a tweet after the debate which appeared to make fun of Biden’s speech pattern, which she later deleted.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A screenshot of Sarah Sanders’s now deleted tweet. Photograph: Twitter

Responding to Sanders, Biden tweeted: “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.”

Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) 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. https://t.co/0kd0UJr9Rs

In response to swift criticism online, Sanders tweeted that she was “not trying to make fun of anyone with a speech impediment. Simply pointing out I can’t follow much of anything Biden is talking about.”

After deleting the tweet she issued a further apology, saying: “I actually didn’t know that about you and that is commendable. I apologize and should have made my point respectfully.”

In the lead-up to the 2016 elections, Sanders’ former boss, the then candidate Trump, came under fire for imitating and mocking a journalist with a congenital joint condition.



In the Atlantic article, Biden recalled how being mocked by a teacher filled him with “anger, rage, humiliation”. Since then, he said, he had learned that the stutter “can’t define who you are”.