President Joe Biden was called out on social media for making ethnicity-related comments during an address for a U.S. veterans town hall hosted in Delaware.
In a speech he made on Friday (December 16), President Joe Biden made disparaging remarks about the Irish. He said that despite being Irish, he wasn’t “stupid,” adding that he had a “little Italian” in him because of his wife, First Lady Jill Biden’s Italian heritage.
“I may be Irish, but I’m not stupid,” Biden joked, adding that he had married “Dominic Giacoppa’s daughter,” meaning he had some Italian in him.
After the clips of him making those remarks went viral, many on social media voiced their opinion that they believed Biden made the comments in poor taste.
Some suggested Biden’s comments amounted to hate speech, while others pointed to the President getting his wife’s genealogy wrong.
Sharing the clip on Twitter, Greg Price, a conservative digital strategist, revealed the First Lady’s father’s name was Donald Jacob’s, with Giacoppa being the “Italianized version” of the First Lady’s maiden name.
While Jill Biden does have Italian roots, her grandfather was the last to use the last name Giacoppa.
Eoghan McCabe, a businessman and conservative, announced himself as an “Irishman” before adding he felt “neutral” about Biden’s remarks because he believed the President to be “stupid.”
This isn’t the first time Biden has been called out for making anti-Irish remarks; earlier in the year, Biden made a similar joke about being Irish, despite his last direct link to Ireland being his great-grandfather who came to the U.S. in the 19th century.
