President Biden incorrectly told a North Carolina audience on Tuesday that apprentice electricians are not paid and that it’s illegal to own flamethrowers within the US – blazing a recent trail of gaffes as he prepares to launch his re-election campaign.
Biden, 80, routinely calls himself the “most pro-union president” in US history, but during his speech in Durham, he seemed to be blind to the essential details of electrical apprenticeship programs.
“Everyone thinks you wish to be an electrician, you show up and say, ‘I would like to be an electrician,'” Biden said after meeting with local members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Employees.
“You are going for a four- or five-year apprenticeship. It’s like going back to high school. You is not going to be paid until you are fully qualified. It takes 4 to 5 years of coaching, the president added.
But apprentice electricians are paid during an extended period of coaching.
IBEWwhich represents roughly 775,000 American employees, defines at Regularly asked questions page one local branch, “apprentices are paid while working for a participating electrical contractor.
Starting wages and advantages are good and apprentices receive pay increases based on successful completion of on-the-job learning and training.”
Other branches include almost similar information on the wage structure.
The president’s remarks also went sideways when he called for brand spanking new gun control after the Monday killing of six people at a Nashville school by a shooter reportedly armed with a semi-automatic weapon.
“We must act. These are weapons of war. I’m a Second Amendment guy. I actually have two shotguns. My sons have shotguns,” Biden said.
“Everyone thinks that one way or the other the Second Amendment is absolute. You are not allowed to exit and have automatic weapons.
“You are not allowed to own a machine gun. You are not allowed to own a flamethrower. You are not allowed to own so many other things.
In actual fact, flamethrowers could be purchased online, including on Amazon’s popular shopping platform – often sold for weed and snow removal, amongst other things.
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, who is commonly rumored to be a possible 2024 Republican Party vice-presidential candidate, received a flamethrower as a Christmas present in December and tested the device in a widely watched video.
Flamethrowers are prohibited by state law in Maryland but they are allowed in most other places.
The Recent York State Senate passed a proposed a ban on the usage of flamethrowers last 12 months, however the measure didn’t pass the Assembly and the devices remain legal within the Empire State.
On the federal level, former Congressman Elliot Engel (D-NY) tried to ban flamethrowers, however the laws he introduced in 2016 and again in 2019 didn’t pass.
The White House didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment on Biden’s misstatements.
Biden, the oldest U.S. president in history, is predicted to start out his re-election campaign as soon as next month.
His would-be challenger, 76-year-old former President Donald Trump, has sought to make Biden’s mental acuity a problem within the 2020 election by claiming that the Democrat has been cognitively “shot.”
Defenders note that Biden, a self-proclaimed “gaffe machine,” has a history of language errors dating back a long time.
Last week, Biden mistakenly praised “China” when he meant to say “Canada” during a speech within the Ottawa Legislature and mistakenly vowed to disarm “domestic political advisers” when he meant convicted perpetrators of domestic violence.