Sarah Huckabee Sanders attacked Joe Biden on Thursday, mocking the former vice president for having a stutter. The backlash was swift and intense, prompting Sanders to issue a rare apology, saying that she didn’t know Biden had struggled to overcome a speech impediment.
According to CBS News , it all started when Sanders tweeted her attack at Biden during Thursday’s Democratic debate. During the debate, Biden explained how a child with a stutter had reached out to him for help on dealing with the issue. As he recounted the encounter, he spoke with a stutter that Sanders felt the need to address.
“I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I hhhave absolutely no idea what Biden is talking about,” Sanders tweeted.
She immediately faced blowback, not only from Biden supporters but from people who had struggled with their own speech challenges.
Sanders followed up her message with a second tweet to say that she didn’t mean any harm, as The Inquisitr previously reported.
“To be clear 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,” she wrote.
It wasn’t enough to appease the angry masses, and Biden decided to respond to the former White House press secretary directly.
“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.”
The scathing response apparently forced Sanders to re-examine her messages, which she deleted. She followed them up with a third tweet, apologizing and saying that she didn’t know Biden struggled with a speech impediment and had used his challenge as motivation to help others.
“I actually didn’t know that about you and that is commendable,” she wrote . “I apologize and should have made my point respectfully.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/B6EeUnChhqL/
Social media users weren’t entirely appeased by the response. As writer Charlotte Clymer pointed out in a tweet, mocking Biden wouldn’t have been okay even if he didn’t have a stutter. She went on to say that she had seen Sanders in person at the British Embassy and people didn’t want to be around her, suggesting it was because she isn’t a nice person.
Others pointed out that Sarah describes herself as a Christian in her profile and that they felt this behavior wasn’t very Christ-like. Still others said that her comment wasn’t surprising giving her time spent defending President Trump’s own controversial comments.
