‘You’re supposed to do the rope line, Dad’: Hunter the handler steps in to give Joe instructions as his father takes questions from KIDS – despite refusing to give a press conference during Ireland trip
- Biden stopped to meet children of embassy staff in Dublin on Wednesday
- Told kis they could ask ‘anything’ – despite deciding against a press conference
- Hunter stepped him to help him answer and then told him to ‘walk the rope line’
President Joe Biden got help from his son Hunter as he took questions from children when he arrived in Dublin on Wednesday.
On the second day of the 80-year-old’s trip to his ancestral homeland, the president told families of US Embassy staff they could ask him ‘anything’ – despite refusing to hold a press conference.
He told a rambling story about the late Senator Jesse Helms, discussed his German Shepherd Commander, and said the youngsters could ask him anything – even though he has not scheduled a press conference during his four-day trip.
Hunter corrected his father at one point when trying he was trying to remember if Helms was from North or South Carolina, and then guided him to ‘walk the rope line’ when the event wrapped up.
The president’s son, who is under federal tax investigation and under constant threats from Republicans, was alongside his father as he followed his family roots on the Emerald Isle.
The teetotaller stopped off at Carlingford Castle in County Louth and then got a rockstar’s welcome at a pub with historical links to his family – even though he didn’t pour the traditional pint of Guinness.
President Joe Biden got help from his son Hunter as he took questions from children when he arrived in Dublin on Wednesday.
‘Any of you guys want to ask me any questions?’ Biden asked the children. He then got distracted by a youngster holding a toy model of Air Force One.
Then he turned his attention back to the crowd.
‘In the back. He’s got a question,’ Hunter tells his father.
The kid then asks the president to describe the ‘top step’ to success.
Biden then goes into a long-winded answer about Senator Helms ‘who was “not very crazy about African Americans.'”
‘Oh, what’s the key to success? You know what I found out is the key to success is? And I’m not sure I’m the best guy to explain it; these guys can tell you,’ he says.
‘The key to success is whenever you disagree with someone, it’s okay to question their judgment — whether they’re right or wrong — but it’s never okay to question their motive. If you question their motive, then you never get to be able to agree.
‘For example, if you say to somebody, ‘The reason why you don’t agree with me is because you are stupid, you are bad, you are — you just don’t like the people I like.”
Hunter (right) corrected him at one point when he said South Carolina instead of North and then told him to ‘walk the rope line’ when the event wrapped up
‘Instead of saying I just didn’t — just tell you why, I disagree with you because of the following things.
‘Because once you question somebody’s motive — why they’re doing something — because you don’t know. In fact, what happens after that, you can never get an agreement, get together.
‘I learned that lesson a long time — I say to that to all the embassy folks, too — I learned that a long time ago.
‘There was a guy named Jesse Helms from South Carolina — from North Carolina — South Carolina.’
‘North’, Hunter interjects.
‘North Carolina, Biden continues.
‘And he was a very conservative guy who was very, very — not very crazy about African Americans when he got here. He was all — we always had fights.
‘And one day, I was going into the United States Senate, and Jesse Helms said — was — was on the floor of the Senate saying some terrible things about Ted Kennedy and Bob Dole, the Republican leader, who both had introduced a bill for making sure people with disabilities have access to curb cuts, access to buses, and all these things. It’s called the Americans with Disabilities Act.
‘And what happened was, I was very upset when I walked in to go see the Majority Leader when I heard this debate.
Children of embassy staff wait to greet President Biden at Dublin International Airport
‘And unfortunately, I was more afraid of the Majority Leader being late than — than I was to go and talk.
‘I walked in, and I guess I looked like I was angry. And he looked at me, and he said, ‘What’s the matter, Joe?’ I was 32 years old. And I said — and I went on about Jesse Helms, that he has no social redeeming value. ‘How could he possibly say things like that?’ I couldn’t believe it.
And he looked at me and he said, ‘Joe, what would you say if I told you that Jesse Helms, in 1970, sitting in his living room with his wife, Dot, in Raleigh were reading the paper. And there was a photograph of a young man on crutches — 16 years old, with braces from under his arms all the way down to his ankles, and two steel crutches.’
‘And I said, what would you — and — ‘It was an advertisement for an orphanage. And it said, ‘All I want is someone to take me home for Christmas and love me.’
‘He said, ‘What would you say, Joe, if I told you they adopted that young man?’ I said, ‘I’d feel foolish.’ Well, they did adopt him. They did adopt him.
And I said — and I went and apologized to Jesse Helms, because the idea that I disagreed with everything he said, but when he — but the suggestion that he’s doing it because he didn’t care about people with disabilities was wrong. I questioned his motive. I never did that again.
‘That’s a long answer to a real quick question,’ he finished to laughs from the crowd.
Another child then jumps in and asks: ‘How is your dog doing’.
‘My dog is doing well,’ he said. ‘His name is Commander.’
The president then asks the kid his dog’s name – ‘Louie’ – and then signals his appearance is coming to an end by saying: ‘Anyway, guys’.
He then starts to walk out, when Hunter says: ‘You’re supposed to do the rope line, Dad.’
Looking around, Biden asks: ‘I’m supposed to do the rope line?’
‘Just to say hi to everybody’, Hunter tells him.
‘All right. Well, guys, thank you,’ Biden says as he leaves.
Joe’s son Hunter walks along the line of fans and shakes hands before joining his father in the pub
Biden takes a selfie outside the Windsor Bar in Dundalk as crowds line the streets for his visit
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