On Monday, President Biden was blasted for his response to the Nashville school shooting about making a joke regarding ice cream being the only reason he made a public appearance. He then proceeded to discuss the tragedy which resulted in the death of three adults and three 9-year-old children at an elementary school earlier that day.
Biden started his remarks from the White House’s East Room by stating that “My name is Joe Biden. I’m Dr. Jill Biden’s husband.” He then proceeded to joke about his ice cream preferences stating that “I eat Jeni’s ice cream — chocolate chip. I came down because I heard there was chocolate chip ice cream,” and then disclosed that he had a full refrigerator of it upstairs stating that “You think I’m kidding? I’m not.”
This was Biden’s first appearance since a 28-year-old woman entered a Christian private school in Nashville and killed three students and three teachers. Biden proceeded to call the shooting “sick” and “heartbreaking” while at the same time calling for Congress to step up and do something to “stop the gun violence.”
However, many critics were quick to point out that Biden’s response and jokes were completely inappropriate in light of the recent tragedy. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie told Fox News that Biden had completely “misunderstood the moment.” He added that following the tragedy that had just transpired the last thing one would expect would be for the president to come out and joke about being “Jill Biden’s husband” and ice cream.
