Sen. Rand Paul slammed President Biden for relying on cue cards to answer questions from reporters on Monday afternoon.
“A lot of times when you’re around somebody who is in cognitive decline, you find yourself trying to help them with a sentence, trying to help them complete it — but we shouldn’t have to do that for the commander-in-chief,” Mr. Paul, Kentucky Republican, told Fox News.
“And, it is actually a national security risk because he’s sending signals that no one in their right mind would want to send to Russia at this point,” he added.
Mr. Biden faced reporters during a brief press conference to discuss his proposed budget for fiscal 2023.
He answered multiple questions about his saying on Saturday that Russian President Vladimir Putin cannot remain in power, refusing to walk back his remarks.
Mr. Biden insisted that Mr. Putin shouldn’t remain in power and he was simply expressing his “moral outrage” while holding what appeared to be a cheat sheet in his left hand.
A blown-up photo of the cards showed they included notes saying, “If you weren’t advocating for regime change, what did you mean? Can you clarify?”
It also included talking points such as, “I was expressing the moral outrage I felt towards the actions of this man,” and “I was not articulating a change in policy.”
Several Twitter users mocked Mr. Biden’s reliance on cue cards.
“The WH staff gives Biden cue cards with scripted answers/statements yet still has to walk back what he says on a daily basis,” wrote one Twitter user.
“Biden made a mess in Afghanistan & he’ll do the same with whatever he does unless he’s reading from cue cards,” another tweeted.