How bad are things going within the current administration? Things are so bad that they’ve settled on “Bidenomics” as being a good messaging strategy. Apparently, the president and his handlers believe that putting his name on the current economic malaise is actually a net positive compared to the alternative.

Are you feeling the recovery yet? Yeah, I didn’t think so.

Regardless, Joe Biden wants you to know how thankful you should be for his leadership, and he appeared in South Carolina on Thursday to promote “Bidenomics.” In doing so he battled the podium, the teleprompter, and the truth.

Biden opens his speech in South Carolina by struggling to use his podium: "If you're wondering what I'm kicking here, I'm kicking the stand in. It's not working." pic.twitter.com/pRmTD0S4oU

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 6, 2023

I realize this stuff gets played off as being a “joke,” but it just comes across as incredibly awkward. He turns around, mouth gaping, and starts kicking the podium, saying it’s not working. What’s funny about that? And while the crowd starts laughing at the end, I’d suspect most didn’t even understand what he said. It took me several passes of listening closely to make it out what he mumbled.

Biden then moved on to fighting the teleprompter, which I’ll remind everyone is a massive television with letters the size of your head. Pay attention to the squinting throughout this clip.

BIDEN v. TELEPROMPTER pic.twitter.com/rbwszG4v9Y

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 6, 2023

BIDEN: Restore some pride, it matters. And lifting more power components like our, like the, like it’s going to be taking, being made in Redwood mineral, excuse me, Redwood materials here in Charleston, where the company is making the largest investment in the state of, the history of this state.

I don’t understand why they do this to him. What does Biden gain by doing “rallies?” What does he gain by speaking publicly? At this point, it’s just a chance for him to undercut his own staffers and visualize for Americans just how old and incapable he is. Again, we are talking about a guy who doesn’t even use regular teleprompters but instead uses a giant TV everywhere he goes, and he still can’t manage to read the thing.

No worries, though. The president’s eyesight may be waning, but he’s still immensly capable.

Biden says he only learned what a "supply chain" is six years ago pic.twitter.com/EerTRVUyJr

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 6, 2023

That’s a claim that Biden has made before, and it still makes no sense. Everyone knew what a supply chain was before COVID-19 hit. It wasn’t some great mystery that befuddled millions of Americans. I suppose the president feels the need to pretend otherwise because the supply chains have been such a disaster under his leadership. Maybe electing someone who knows about basic things should be a prerequisite next time?

Biden then moved to infrastructure.

Biden, in South Carolina, says "you'll be able to go through [the Hudson Tunnel] 100 mph instead of 30 mph" because of him 🤔 pic.twitter.com/BIcOnWBdCv

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 6, 2023

Perhaps speed limits are a foreign concept to the Bidens given Hunter does 172mph while high on crack, but I’m pretty sure no one is going to be allowed to drive through the future Hudson Tunnel at 100mph when the construction is completed. More importantly, the project hasn’t even begun, which is more the point. The Biden administration is smoke and mirrors. Allocating a metric ton of taxpayer money while being deeply in debt is not impressive. It’s just exploitative.

Lastly, Biden stretched the truth on wages.

BIDEN: "The pay for low wage workers has grown at the fastest pace in two decades."

FACT: Real weekly wages have fallen every single month since Biden passed his $1.7 trillion "stimulus." pic.twitter.com/04uphHFcE6

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 6, 2023

I don’t think most people appreciate how much money they’ve lost under the Biden administration. Certainly, the president doesn’t appreciate it. Cumulative inflation is approaching 20 percent since Biden took office. Wage growth has come nowhere near matching that, and people are left managing their decline at this point. Given that, maybe the president could stop insulting everyone’s intelligence by claiming the opposite. Wages are not up because wages do not exist in a vacuum.

If this is the kind of gaslighting we can expect from the “Bidenomics” push, I’m not sure it’s going to resonate.