No wonder President Biden needs a cheat sheet while taking questions from adults.
The 80-year-old commander-in-chief had difficulty remembering his recent state visit to Ireland Thursday while being grilled by kids during a Take Your Child to Work event at the White House.
“The last country I’ve traveled, I’m trying to think of the last one I was in,” Biden mused to the children of administration staffers and members of the media. “I’ve been to, met with 89 heads of state so far. So, uh, trying to think where was the last place I was; it’s hard to keep track.”
“Ireland,” a child shouted out, jogging the president’s memory.
“Yeah, you’re right, Ireland. That’s where it was,” he said good-naturedly. “How’d you know that?”
Biden, with the help of first son Hunter, also took questions from children of US embassy workers while in Ireland — but hosted no formal news conferences, frustrating members of the White House press corps.
The Ireland exchange was one of a handful on Thursday that highlighted the president’s frequent memory lapses, most notably forgetting the death of congresswoman Jackie Walorski and calling out the Indiana Republican’s name at an event last September.
Another child at the White House event asked Biden: “Do you watch the Stanley Cup playoffs, and if you do, do you have a favorite team?”
“I did, and I do: The Philadelphia Flyers,” the president answered, apparently unaware that the team did not make the tournament this year.
The commander-in-chief also rattled off the names of grandchildren Naomi, 29, Finnegan, 23, Maisy, 22, Natalie, 18, Robert Hunter Biden II, 17, and Beau Jr., 2, but stopped short of mentioning Navy Joan Roberts, the often unacknowledged 4-year-old daughter of Hunter and Lunden Roberts, a former stripper.
“And guess what? They’re crazy about me because I pay so much attention to them,” Biden said, getting some laughs from the crowd of parents and children present.
An Arkansas judge ruled Monday that Hunter, 53, who has been staying away from the proceedings of a child support case involving his love child with Lunden, must attend all court hearings going forward.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) suggested last week that money from Hunter’s foreign business deals — which benefited other members of the first family — may have gone to some of the president’s nieces, nephews and grandchildren.
Roberts is suing Hunter for child support, but deliberations have been slowed by questions about financial records on his abandoned laptop.
A court-ordered DNA test proved in November 2019 that Hunter was Navy’s father.