'She was 12 and I was 30' Biden says as he points at woman during teachers speech: Audience laughs as President says 'we got back a long way' and she 'helped me get a lot of work done' - before attacking Republicans

  • Biden spoke to teachers at the National Education Association on Friday 
  • He started the speech mainly attacking the GOP by singling out a crowd member
  • 'You gotta say hi to me', Biden said, pointing to someone sat near the front 
  • 'We go back a long way. She was 12, I was 30, he added to laughs from audience
  •  Later in the speech he criticized the Republican's 'Commitment to America'
  • He called out Kevin McCarthy and said his policy plan was 'thin'  

President Joe Biden started a Democratic National Committee speech with a teachers union on Friday with eye-opening remarks.

Pointing to a member of the crowd at the National Education Association, he said: 'You gotta say hi to me. We go back a long way. She was 12, I was 30.'

The audience laughed before he said: 'This woman helped me get a lot done'. 

Later in the remarks he said: 'I mean this from the bottom of my heart. Those of you who know me, no one ever doubts I mean what I say, the problem is I sometimes say all that I mean.'

It was the start of speech in Washington D.C. where he attacked MAGA Republicans and called GOP leader Kevin McCarthy's 'Commitment to America' policy plan 'thin'. 

The president also promised to veto a Republican abortion ban if it arrived at his desk and said the midterms are a choice between 'hope, unity, optimism' and 'division, fear, darkness'. 

He celebrated gas prices being down $1.30 a gallon and re-upped his attacks on the use of assault weapons.

'What in God's name do you need an assault weapon for? It's an assault weapon designed to kill people, to defend America, to defend people.'

President Joe Biden started a Democratic National Committee speech with a teachers union on Friday with eye-opening remarks. Pointing to a member of the crowd at the National Education Association, he said: 'You gotta say hi to me. We go back a long way. She was 12, I was 30'

President Joe Biden started a Democratic National Committee speech with a teachers union on Friday with eye-opening remarks. Pointing to a member of the crowd at the National Education Association, he said: 'You gotta say hi to me. We go back a long way. She was 12, I was 30'

'After opposing and obstructing everything we tried to do to stop progress for the last two years, the House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy went to Pennsylvania and unveiled what he calls a "Commitment to America,"' Biden said. 'That's a thin series of policy goals with limited amount of detail that he says Republicans are going to pursue if they regain control of the Congress.' 

'Over the course of nearly an hour, here are a few of the things we didn't hear,' Biden continued. 'We didn't hear him mention the right to choose. We didn't hear him mention Medicare. We didn't hear him mention Social Security.'

Biden also mocked McCarthy for suggesting he would 'restore faith in elections'.

'With a straight face, Kevin McCarthy says that MAGA Republicans are going to restore faith in our elections. As we say in my faith, "Bless me father for I have sinned,"' he told the crowd.

What McCarthy did talk about, Biden said, was preserving Constitutional freedom. 

'That sounds great. I'm for doing that as well, we all are,' the president said. 'But look at what they've actually done.' 

'The MAGA Republicans just cheered and embraced the first Supreme Court decision in our entire history, first one in our entire history, that just didn't fail to preserve a constitutional freedom, it actually took away a fundamental right that had been granted by the same court to so many Americans - the constitutional right to choose,' Biden pointed out. 

Later in the remarks he said: 'I mean this from the bottom of my heart. Those of you who know me, no one ever doubts I mean what I say, the problem is I sometimes say all that I mean

Later in the remarks he said: 'I mean this from the bottom of my heart. Those of you who know me, no one ever doubts I mean what I say, the problem is I sometimes say all that I mean

Republicans of all stripes have embraced the Dobbs decision - which overturned the 1973 landmark case Roe v. Wade and threw abortion laws back to the states. 

There's some debate among Republicans - especially after GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham introduced a nationwide 15-week ban bill - of whether to attempt to outlaw abortion at a federal level or keep it at the state level.

'If they win Congress, I will veto it,' Biden said of the Graham abortion ban bill.

McCarthy's Commitment to America does mention preserving the rights of the unborn, but during his appearance with other GOP lawmakers in Monongahela, they didn't put their abortion stance front-and-center.  

Instead McCarthy promised that the first bill a House GOP majority would pass would be to 'repeal 87,000 IRS agents' - a figure Republicans took from a Treasury Department assessment of how many IRS employees could be hired using the $80 billion appropriation in the Inflation Reduction Act, to drum up opposition toward the bill. 

'And finally, with a straight face, Kevin McCarthy says MAGA Republicans will restore faith in our elections,' Biden continued. 'As we say in my faith, "Bless me father for I have sinned." Restore? Restore faith in our elections?' the president said chuckling. 

'MAGA Republicans refused to accept the results of the 2020 election,' he added. 

Biden also hinted that the MAGA brand, aligned with former President Donald Trump, wasn't potent in general elections. 

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