Photos show Biden, 78, relied on 14-point font prompt cards during his first press conference, including one with head shots of reporters he planned to call on: Lost his train of thought at times

Images taken during President Joe Biden‘s first press conference on Thursday showed him using cheat sheets – which did not prevent him from misstating key facts and losing his train of thought at times. 

The 78-year-old Democrat is seen holding one sheet that showed the headshots of journalists at the press conference that he planned to call on. 

Another cheat card listed stats about infrastructure, but Biden was still forced to correct himself after mistakenly saying the US ranked 85th in the world in infrastructure. 

The bullet point on one of his notes read: ‘The United States now ranks 13th globally in infrastructure quality, down from 5th place in 2002.’

‘I still think the majority of the American people don’t like the fact that we are now ranked what, 85th in the world in infrastructure. I mean, look,’ he said, before later circling back and clarifying: ‘We rank 13th globally in infrastructure.’ 

Despite the cheat sheets, Biden at several points in the press conference appeared to lose his train of thought.

After speaking for four minutes about the surge of migrants at the border, he remarked, ‘And the other thing we’re doing, I might add…’ before cutting himself off to ask, ‘Am I giving you too long of an answer? Because if you don’t want the detail …’

‘I don’t know how much detail you want about immigration,’ he continued. ‘Maybe I’ll stop there.’

At another point, Biden was speaking at length about the Senate filibuster when he lost his train of thought again.

‘I’ve never been particularly poor at calculating how to get things done in the United States Senate. So the best way to get something done, if you hold near and dear to you that you like to be able to…’ he said, trailing off.

‘Anyway, we’re ready to get a lot done,’ he then continued. 

At another point in the press conference, things turned downright bizarre when Biden made a reference to ‘Jim Eagle’ when accusing Republicans of trying to restrict voting rights to disenfranchise black voters. 

‘So I’m convinced that we’ll be able to stop this because it is the most pernicious thing. This makes Jim Crow look like Jim Eagle,’ he said of voting restrictions.

Observers all seemed to agree that Biden was trying to make the point that restrictions such as voter ID laws are ‘worse than Jim Crow’ — but the exact role of Jim Eagle in the analogy was lost on many.   

Jim Crow refers to laws that enforced racial segregation in schools, public places, transportation and all aspect of public life in many U.S. states from the 1870s to the 1950s. 

Biden’s Jim Eagle remarks predictably drew mockery from conservative critics. 

‘Duh. It’s an analogy. Crow, eagle. They’re both birds, but an eagle is much bigger than a crow,’ said Fox News host Tucker Carlson. ‘That means that asking people to show a driver’s license when they vote is much more racist than segregation and lynchings.’

‘Segregation and lynchings were Jim Crow, voter ID laws are Jim Eagle — way worse,’ he added sarcastically.

Thursday’s conversation was his first since he took office on January 20. It was also limited to 25 reporters.  

At the one-hour press conference on Thursday, Biden called on just 10 reporters to ask questions, and many of them focused on the migrant crisis at the southern border, leaving little time for other subjects.

Though Biden addressed relations with China at length, he faced no questions about the ongoing investigation of the origins of COVID-19 — or any other question about his pandemic response and vaccine rollout.

There were no questions about potential tax hikes to fund Biden’s reported $3 trillion green infrastructure plan, and relations with Russia were left unmentioned despite recent tensions after Biden labeled Vladimir Putin a ‘killer’.

Biden was also not asked to weigh in on New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, his fellow Democrat who faces twin scandals over his handling of nursing homes in the pandemic, and allegations of sexual harassment and bullying. This week, reports emerged he had also prioritized COVID-19 testing for family, including his CNN anchor brother Chris, and friends at the height of the pandemic when ordinary New Yorkers struggled to get access.

Parents desperate to get their children back in the classroom also did not get the chance to hear Biden’s plan to reopen schools in the coronavirus pandemic. 

Also unmentioned at the presser was a recent report from Politico detailing a 2018 incident in which the Secret Service intervened after president’s daughter-in-law Hallie discarded a gun belonging to Hunter Biden in a trash can. 

Fox News reporter Peter Doocy called out Biden for not taking any questions from him at the press conference, saying he had ‘a binder full of questions’ to put to the president.

‘We had a lot and most of the stuff we did not get to,’ Doocy remarked on-air after the press conference. 

‘Nobody asked him about this big plan that he has got, this big idea to completely transform the economy to make it all green,’ Doocy continued. 

‘That is something we were hoping to get on the board with and there were not a lot of questions about Covid, particularly the investigation into the origins of it,’ he added. 

Several reporters at the press conference focused on issues at the southern border, where a surge of illegal crossings is on track to break a 20-year record.

Biden said he would be ‘flattered’ if migrants were coming to the United States because of him and ridiculed the idea the surge in migrants at the border is because he’s a ‘nice guy.’

‘Look, I guess I should be flattered that people are coming because I am the nice guy, that that is why they are coming, that I am a decent man or however it was phrased. That that is why they are coming, because Biden is a decent guy. But the truth is nothing has changed,’ he said.

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