Joe Biden Forgets Name Of Martin Luther King III's Wife During Botched MLK Jr. Day Speech
Jan. 16 2023, Published 5:45 p.m. ET
During the annual celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. on January 16, President Joe Biden botched his address when he forgot the name of the late Civil Rights leader's daughter-in-law, RadarOnline.com has learned.
This year's MLK Jr. Day celebration fell on the birthday of Arndrea Waters King. Arndrea has been married to the late Civil Rights leader's son, Martin Luther King III, since 2006. The couple has one child together, daughter Yolanda Renee King, 13.
When President Biden sang her happy birthday, he forgot a crucial piece of information: Arndrea's name.
The 80-year-old president, who has been known to fumble speeches, made an unusual error during the botched address.
During the event, which was hosted in Washington D.C. by civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network, Biden began his remarks by encouraging the crowd to wish Arndrea a happy birthday.
"Well look, my wife has a rule in our family – When it's somebody's birthday you sing Happy Birthday," Biden said of his wife, First Lady Dr. Jill Biden.
The heartfelt sentiment quickly turned embarrassing when Biden forget the woman's name at the podium.
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As the familiar cadence of the happy birthday song came to the point where Biden would say Arndrea's name, he appeared to mumble what sounded like Valerie.
As the crowd gathered at The Mayflower Hotel returned in laughter at Biden's mishap, the Democrat president ended the song with a deflated, "well."
After the birthday debacle, Biden then turned his speech into an attack on Republican leadership. While speaking of the nation's rising debt crisis, he rallied for a reduction in the federal deficit that steadies around a whopping $1 trillion.
"Hear me, that's a fact," Biden told the crowd gathered for the MLK Jr. Day festivities. "And there's going to be hundreds of billions reduced over the next decade." Biden then paused and mumbled a diss against the GOP.
"But so what, these guys – well, they're fiscally demented, I think," Biden stated on Republican lawmakers.
Before his address on January 16, Biden flew to Atlanta, Georgia, the previous day to deliver an address at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Rev. King Jr. once led the parish in the 60s.
With the visit, Biden became the first-ever sitting president to deliver a sermon at the historic place of worship.
Rev. King Jr. was assassinated in 1968. He was survived by his wife, Coretta Scott King, and their children, Martin Luther King III, Yolanda, Dexter, and Bernice.