President Joe Biden downgraded Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer at his State of the Union speech on Tuesday night, and former President Donald Trump called him out on it.
The gaffe occurred during Biden’s impromptu introductory comments before he went on script.
“Congratulations to Chuck Schumer, another term as Senate minority leader. You know, only this time you have a slightly bigger majority. You are the majority leader. Not that much bigger?” Biden asked looking at his fellow Democrat.
Schumer said that the Democrats gained one seat in the midterm elections.
With John Fetterman’s victory over Mehmet Oz, they flipped the seat occupied by retiring Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Pat Toomey.
Biden: "Congratulations to Chuck Schumer, another term as Senate minority leader. You know, only this time you have a slightly bigger majority. You are the majority leader. Not that much bigger?" pic.twitter.com/VlTFx9t9rH
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) February 8, 2023
During Biden’s first two years in office, the Democrats enjoyed a working majority, with a 50-50 split between the parties with Vice President Kamala Harris, in her position as Senate President, casting the deciding vote.
Trump responded to Biden’s error writing on TruthSocial, “Big stumble on Schumer. He called him Minority Leader. Can’t do that! Each time he’s going off script, he’s making a mistake.”
“Hopefully he will improve!” Trump added.
During the 2020 presidential campaign, Trump claimed that Biden would occasionally forget what state he was in.
The 45th president wrote in a later TruthSocial post during Biden’s speech that he’s “Having a hard time getting the words out, even though the Fake News will credit him with one of the Great Speeches of all time. I really want to see him improve. Come one Joe, you can do it!”
Throughout the address, Trump made numerous additional statements about Biden and others on the social media site.