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'Jackie, are you here?' Biden asks for dead lawmaker Jackie Walorski in latest TRAGIC gaffe for POTUS

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said it is 'not unusual' for people to say the names of deceased people when they are 'at top of mind'

WASHINGTON, DC: In the latest blunder, President Joe Biden asked a crowd gathered for the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health in Washington, DC where late Representative Jackie Walorski was located. Biden thanked lawmakers for working to end hunger in the US by 2030. Interrupting his own remarks, Biden said, "Jackie, are you here?" He added, "Where's Jackie? She must not be here." He also appreciated Senators Mike Braun, a Republican, and Cory Booker, a Democrat, on the bipartisan initiative. Notably, Biden had previously mourned Walorski’s death in a car crash last month. He had also lowered the White House’s flags for two days in her memory.

After Biden's gaffe, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said it is "not unusual" for people to say the names of deceased people when they are "at top of mind". As reporters asked her about Biden's mental health, she gave almost identical replies to all of them, claiming as many as nine times that Walorski was simply “top of mind” for Biden. She did not say why he thought the lawmaker was alive. 

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Steven Portnoy of CBS News Radio, who was the third reporter to raise the topic after ABC’s Cecilia Vega and CNN’s Phil Mattingly, asked Jean-Pierre, “Was the president confused? Was something written in the teleprompter that he didn’t recognize?” “I’m trying to find out what happened here,” Portnoy added.

“You’re jumping to a lot of conclusions … If that had been the case, I would have stated that,” Jean-Pierre said, adding, “what I said was that she was on top of mind and that he’s going to see her family in just two days’ time.”

Portnoy then asked if Biden script would be released by the White House so people could understand how he made the mistake. Jean-Pierre said in response that she did not understand “what that has to do with anything.” “I just answered the question about her being top of mind,” Jean-Pierre added. “I don’t think that’s unusual. I feel like many of us have gone through that particular time where someone is on top of mind and you call them out.”

Matt Viser of the Washington Post told ean-Pierre, “The confusing part is, why if [Walorski] and the family are top of mind does the president think she’s living and in the room?” “I don’t find that confusing,” Jean-Pierre said. “I mean, I think many people can speak to sometimes when we have someone top of mind, they’re top of mind — exactly that … It happened at an event where we were calling out the champions, congressional champions in particular, of this issue.”

Newsmax reporter James Rosen said, “Karine, I have John Lennon top of mind just about every day, but I’m not looking around for him anywhere.” The press secretary replied, “When you sign a bill for John Lennon as president, then we can have this conversation."

EWTN reporter Owen Jensen was heard shouting, "Why not just apologize?” Meanwhile, Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett asked, "These moments of confusion are happening with increased frequency. Americans are watching this and they’re having concerns. What do you say to that?” The reported added, "This is a legitimate question. We need to have some answers.”

Ignoring the question, Jean-Pierre said to a different reporter, “I’m sorry, somebody was yelling." “We were asking about the mental acuity of the president," Halkett said again. Refusing to answer the question, Jean-Pierre said, “It is not your turn to speak and you’re being rude to your colleagues." “You might be being rude to us by not answering the question,” Halkett shot back. “You’re yelling over your colleague, so that is incredibly rude,” Jean-Pierre countered. A New York Post reporter asked, “Can we have an answer to the substantive question here, though?” Top of mind is not an answer,” Halkett added.

At the time of Walorski's death read, Biden said in a statement, according to the Daily Mail, "Jill and I are shocked and saddened by the death of Congresswoman Jackie Walorski of Indiana along with two members of her staff in a car accident today in Indiana. Born in her beloved South Bend as the daughter of a meat-cutter and firefighter, she spent a lifetime serving the community that she grew up in – as a journalist, a nonprofit director, a state legislator, and eventually as a Member of Congress for the past nine and half years. We may have represented different parties and disagreed on many issues, but she was respected by members of both parties for her work on the House Ways and Means Committee on which she served."

Biden added, "She also served as co-chair of the House Hunger Caucus, and my team and I appreciated her partnership as we plan for a historic White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health this fall that will be marked by her deep care for the needs of rural America. We send our deepest condolences to her husband, Dean, to the families of her staff members, Zachery Potts and Emma Thomson who lost their lives in public service, and to the people of Indiana's Second District who lost a representative who was one of their own."