Biden’s Slurred Speech Sparks Concerns as He Touts Judicial Diversity Record

President Joe Biden’s latest public appearance has reignited concerns about his cognitive sharpness after he struggled through portions of a speech celebrating his administration’s judicial nominations.

The 81-year-old commander-in-chief stumbled over words, lost his train of thought multiple times, and spoke with noticeable slurring during what was meant to be a triumphant showcase of his record on judicial appointments.

While the White House quickly attributed the verbal stumbles to “a minor cold,” the moment has provided fresh ammunition to critics who question whether Biden is fit to serve another term.

The president had taken the podium at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia to highlight what he called “the most demographically diverse group of judicial nominees in history.”

Biden emphasized that 64% of his appointees have been women, and a significant percentage are people of color. “These judges look like America,” Biden declared at one coherent moment, before later confusing statistics and names.

At one particularly jarring point, he referred to Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson—his own Supreme Court appointee—as “Justice Brown-Ket…Justice Jackson-Brown…the justice I appointed to the Supreme Court.” The audience of legal scholars and Democratic supporters offered polite applause, but social media immediately erupted with clips of the gaffes.

This latest episode comes just weeks after Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report described Biden as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” unleashing a wave of scrutiny about the president’s mental acuity.

The White House has pushed back aggressively against such characterizations, pointing to Biden’s demanding schedule and policy accomplishments. Yet even some Democratic allies privately admit the president’s verbal stumbles are becoming harder to explain away, especially as he campaigns for reelection.

“When he’s on, he’s still very effective,” one Democratic strategist admitted anonymously. “But these off moments are happening with enough frequency that it’s becoming a real vulnerability.”

The judicial diversity milestone Biden sought to highlight—one of his administration’s undisputed successes—ended up overshadowed by delivery concerns.

The president has now appointed more women and people of color to the federal bench than any predecessor, fulfilling a 2020 campaign promise to make the judiciary reflect the nation’s demographics.

This includes appointing the first Muslim American federal judge, the first openly LGBTQ+ woman to serve on a federal appeals court, and more Black women to appellate courts than all previous presidents combined. Yet these historic achievements risk getting lost in the noise of Biden’s verbal miscues.

Republican critics wasted no time seizing on the footage. “This isn’t about politics—it’s about basic competence,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson in a statement.

“The American people deserve clarity and coherence from their president, especially when discussing something as important as our judiciary.”

The Trump campaign quickly edited together a supercut of Biden’s recent verbal stumbles, set to ominous music, which went viral across conservative platforms. Even some neutral observers expressed concern.

“There’s a difference between the occasional gaffe and a consistent pattern of disfluency,” noted linguistics professor Dr. Sarah Johnson (no relation to the Speaker), who has studied presidential speech patterns for two decades.

Behind the scenes, White House aides have reportedly grown increasingly frustrated with how Biden’s substantive policy messages keep getting derailed by these attention-grabbing moments.

The Philadelphia speech contained detailed arguments about judicial philosophy and the importance of diversity in governance—points largely ignored in coverage focusing on delivery rather than content.

This pattern has become familiar to Biden’s team: major policy addresses on infrastructure, manufacturing, or foreign policy reduced in public discussion to a handful of verbal missteps.

The president’s physicians continue to insist he remains in good health for his age. Last year’s physical exam reported no signs of neurological disorders, and Biden’s work schedule would exhaust many younger individuals.

Supporters argue that his lifetime stutter—which he has openly discussed—explains many of his verbal difficulties. Yet the contrast with his sharper 2020 campaign performances has become impossible to ignore, feeding into voter concerns reflected in polling.

A recent New York Times/Siena poll found 73% of registered voters, including 61% of Democrats, believe Biden is “too old” to be effective.

As the 2024 election looms, these questions about Biden’s fitness threaten to undermine his campaign’s central argument that he represents stability and experience compared to the chaos of Trump.

The president’s team knows they can’t prevent every verbal stumble, but they’re working to refocus attention on policy wins—like the diverse judiciary—rather than delivery.

Whether voters will look past the increasingly visible signs of aging to judge Biden on his record remains the campaign’s defining challenge. For now, another speech meant to highlight achievement has instead fueled the very concerns the White House hoped to put to rest.