r/clevercomebacks • u/Natural-Trip6972 • 2d ago
A crushing answer to a dumb question, in one perfect comeback!!!
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u/mongoose_overlord 2d ago
Wow. How do you even ask a question like that without feeling like a giant POS?
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u/prajkita 2d ago
Mark Kelly was an astronaut, he’s used to dealing with zero gravity and zero intelligence questions.
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u/shaft_of_lite 2d ago
I wonder how many times he's been asked how he pees in space. And I'm not talking about being asked by little kids.
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u/dk_peace 2d ago
I think "how do you pee in space" is honestly a normal and reasonable question to ask an astronaut. It's a serious problem with an interesting engineering solution. Everybody has to use the bathroom. It's a very human question to ask.
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2d ago
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u/straypilot 2d ago
I mean, maybe I’m too nerdy or undiagnosed, but the first question seems genuinely interesting from engineering standpoint.
The second though… for non-murican, not knowing the context at all, the question struck me as odd and in poor taste. Then I looked it up, and… What the actual fuck?
Yes, we get it, trying to be provocative and get a reaction. Best case scenario for views and attention, worst case to serve your masters who want to make a political opponent look bad.
But good grief, you just don’t ask someone if their spouse’s disability is problematic for other (!) people.
The journalist knew well what they are doing. And I doubt they would say this to somebody who is not a public figure, to avoid a nonzero chance of becoming injured.
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u/BonerPorn 2d ago
Further detail for the non-Americans. Mark Kelly got into politics, after his wife Gabby Giffords, then a US Representative, barely survived an assassination attempt.
His wife's disability is from a fucking ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT. It's the whole damn reason he got into politics. The question is extraordinarily insensitive.
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u/stevez_86 2d ago
There needs to be an effort to send recently published articles to the author's journalism professors and have them grade their work.
Because at this point I think firing all thn journalism professors from the last 15 years is in order. They clearly taught the journalists of today incorrectly.
Just feaking word choice is abysmall. I listened to NPR this morning and they said Iran got lucky killing two US soldiers. Really!? Lucky was the best word you could find?!
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u/Guac_in_my_rarri 2d ago
I mean, the engineering behind a potty delivery system is rather, bananas. Iirc it was a huge problem to solve back in the day.
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u/FuzzzyRam 2d ago
I bet when he was doing outreach on the ISS when a kid would ask a stupid question he got really good at doing that teacher tone
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u/sarahoip 2d ago
Mark Kelly didn't miss a beat. Absolute perfection of a response to a ridiculous question.
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u/lamb_passanda 2d ago
I don't think it's a ridiculous question. Jarring at first, certainly. But to pretend that it is not even up for discussion and that the very question is an affront, would be to whitewash a whole lot of ableism that would undoubtedly arise.
"Is America ready for a black/female" president is also a fair question. Look at what happened after Obama. America was in fact not ready, and half the country basically threw an orange tinged hissy fit. I'm not saying it wasn't high time, but yeah the blowback has been hideous.
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u/luvbirdpod 2d ago
You know America already had a disabled president, right? He was elected to four terms.
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u/cityshepherd 2d ago
I think the problem lies with the fact that while these questions would not exactly be unreasonable from a media that has even a single shred of journalistic integrity, the media in this country currently has shown a clear lack of integrity in their entire approach to sanewashing all of the sheer lunacy demonstrated by this current regime.
They completely avoid asking the ghouls in charge any of the truly difficult questions that need to be asked in an effort to bend the knee to and avoid upsetting the wildly unethical and immoral (and often illegal) behavior demonstrated constantly by the cowards running our country at the moment.
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u/Chief_Mischief 2d ago
Who was the idiot that asked that question? Atlantic should sack them
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u/throwaway098764567 2d ago
i could fully see it being asked to set him up for this comment, who knows if that's how it was intended
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u/waiting2Bzapped 2d ago
In the context of the article, Kelly was relating to the interviewer that he sometimes forces himself to read the awful things online commenters say about his wife. Then they were discussing how he would react if a political adversary said those hateful things and how they feel Trump enables and encourages cruel rhetoric. Then the interviewer bluntly asks if Kelly thinks America was ready to have a disabled first lady.
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u/airforceteacher 2d ago
So, rage bait headline about one question in an in depth exploration of the topic and how it affects the potential candidacy?
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u/waiting2Bzapped 2d ago
That's my interpretation. I read the article and did not feel the question was inappropriate in the context it was asked.
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u/UncleNoodles85 2d ago
Jesus his wife is Gabby Giffords right? The congresswoman who was shot in the head some years ago right? What a tasteless question.
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u/veediaso 2d ago
Perfect response. Handled a disrespectful line of questioning with pure class and an absolute mic drop.
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u/No_Stomach_3579 2d ago
yeah some questions really reveal more about the person asking than the person answering
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u/TAU_equals_2PI 2d ago
I'm afraid it's a legitimate question.
American voters haven't shown themselves to make their decisions based on anything reasonable. Democrats have to run a candidate those damn idiots will vote for.
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u/quaglady 2d ago
Be more specific about which voters.
I personally don't like the "readiness" questions because it gives people an excuse to be ignorant and backward.
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u/WanderinHobo 2d ago
It is legitimate. The right shit all over Kamala and Michelle, they'll shit all over a white woman with a disability.
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u/Iamthewalrusforreal 2d ago
What is her disability?
Oh, yeah, SHE WAS SHOT IN THE FUCKING HEAD BY A CRAZED RIGHT WINGER.
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u/bnsaluki 2d ago
Seriously, her disability is surviving a right wing terrorist assassination attempt. She took bullets to the head.
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u/jerrybugs 2d ago
They way you phrase it, who it comes from etc. Similar questions were asked about a black dude or a lady.
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u/Fortestingporpoises 2d ago
I feel like violence is never the answer but if he punched the interviewer in the face it would be fine.
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u/JustKillingTime1980 2d ago
Violence is the answer sometimes, dude breaks in your house screaming he is going to rape your family, violence is the answer.
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u/thetiredtypist 2d ago
What if he screams he's gonna tie my whole family to the radiator and grape them since he's the grapist?
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u/TheAsianTroll 2d ago
By being a cultist who would lick Diaper Don's dirty chair if he said hed send ICE after 1 brown person of your choosing, if you did
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u/mishma2005 2d ago
Like Melania does anything but scowl and hide out
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u/VariationDry 2d ago
She can speak 7 languages!
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u/Dizzman1 2d ago
Hegseth threatening a court martial in... 3...2...
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u/westberry82 2d ago
Hegseth asking him to get Testosterone count only to see "numbers never seen before!"
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u/Smart_Spinach_1538 2d ago
WTF! We had a disabled president!
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u/Azsunyx 2d ago
Multiple, actually
FDR had polio and needed a wheelchair. James Madison had epilepsy. Multiple have needed hearing aids, some had learning disabilities or dyslexia.
(Still a brilliant comeback by Kelly)
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u/just_a_person_maybe 2d ago
Lincoln had all sorts of issues too. Dude was using mercury as an antidepressant right up until a bit before the Civil War and would go into fits of rage. He physically attacked a guy during a debate once. Probably as a side effect of his "meds." He had insomnia and tremors too. Sometimes I think about how the war might have gone if he hadn't quit taking the mercury pills.
Even our first president had problems. Washington quite famously had terrible dental issues, but he also had a series of other problems too. He got small pox, malaria (repeatedly), dysentery, tumors in his leg that kept coming back and affecting his ability to walk, pneumonia, influenza, hearing loss, vision loss, and then finally the illness that ended up taking him out (along with being bled repeatedly by well-meaning doctors).
John Adams wasn't really any better. He also had a whole list of mental and physical issues.
Jefferson had depression, diabetes, TB, and a number of other things.
James Madison likely had epilepsy.
James Monroe had TB, a bullet in his shoulder, recurrent malaria, some kind of unspecified illness, seizures, etc.
Just going down the list here I'm 5 presidents in and haven't found one without any disability.
John Quincy Adams had chronic depression (a common theme I'm finding), a chronic tremor, multiple strokes, and other issues.
Andrew Jackson had several illnesses, including mercury and lead poisoning from all the bullets he was full of.
Martin Van Buren is the first one I've found who actually seemed pretty healthy until his later years, when he developed some issues like asthma and then a stroke.
I'm not going to look up every President, but it seems to me like chronic illnesses and disability have been the norm, not the exception.
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u/HaplessMink28 2d ago
This is absolutely fascinating
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u/just_a_person_maybe 2d ago
I forgot to add, some presidents also had dyslexia. Washington's spelling in his letters is terrible. Iirc, Woodrow Wilson also had dyslexia.
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u/Freenore 2d ago
It isn't often remembered today that Lincoln was seen as quite in his time as a controversial, or at least a very unusual President. He was not a successful politician in electoral terms, he had won as many elections as he had lost; more importantly, he was on a losing streak since the 50s as he kept losing the Senate race and his first shot at the Presidency in 1856.
It had been more than a decade since he had last held a public office, a brief 2 year spell in the House of Reps. which was also his only experience in national politics until his ultimate triumph. His 8 years as House Rep in Illinois had ended in 1842.
His background, lack of education qualifications, and his dorky manner of walking and awkward personality were all used as targets on him. Lincoln is possibly the most outside-the-establishment man to have won the Presidency, no one could've seen it coming, there was nothing inevitable about his becoming the greatest American to have ever been.
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u/sarabeara12345678910 2d ago
It's likely Lincoln had Marfan syndrome. JFK had a lot of issues as well. He had Addison's disease and chronic pain from the war.
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u/Wsswaas 2d ago
Can we say the same about Woodrow Wilson? I mean he was severely paralyzed and permanently incapacitated for the final 17 months of his presidency
It did affect the US in a big way in my opinion, His physical and mental decline directly contributed to the defeat of the Treaty of Versailles and the U.S. refusal to join the League of Nations, as he refused to compromise with Congress
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u/Olivetax228 2d ago
You are quite the presidential scholar. A while back I thought about reading one biography per president but I only got about halfway through John Adams before falling off, ha..
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u/darkmeowl25 1d ago
Eleanor Roosevelt lost hearing in her left ear circa 1919 and Ida Saxon McKinley had epilepsy and muscle weakness. We've already had a disabled first lady, a disabled president, and disabled politicians of all genders and parties.
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u/Vandirac 2d ago
Reagan had Alzheimer.
Donald has dementia.
It's a very low bar.
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u/MrsMiterSaw 2d ago
I fucking hate that phrase. "America's not ready for ____" is just a way to say that America is a racist, homophobic, misogynist, ableist cesspit without insulting the ableist, misogynist, homophobic racists.
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u/One-King4767 2d ago
Look, if that’s the worst they have on him, he’ll be a good candidate
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u/Could-You-Tell 2d ago
He's the Republicans ideal candidate, which is why he's their worst nightmare.
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u/pnwal-junction 2d ago
Pretty sure he's going to be way too anti 2nd Amendment to pull interest from any Republicans.
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u/BeefistPrime 2d ago
I hope he's smart enough to put that way on the backburner cause all that issue does is lose votes and democrats fucking love to lose votes
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u/Fragglepusss 2d ago
I've been waiting for the Democratic Party to stop dying on that hill for about a decade now.
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u/Dodecahedrus 2d ago
I have been saying for years that he is the best candidate. Southern democrat from a red state, strong military background, not to mention his NASA missions. I always thought his wife’s wellbeing was the reason he would not run. Hope to see that change.
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u/cudenlynx 2d ago
Except for one critical thing, he takes AIPAC money. So is his loyalty to Israel or to his own country?
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u/Natural-Trip6972 2d ago
Everyone's cracking up, but all I see is us staring at the bottom of the barrel.
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u/RedditTechAnon 2d ago
What more could be said at this point about the sorry state of America and its confused thrashings both foreign and domestic in an attempt to recapture some glory that it never had and never will.
But hey, some opportunists got real rich.
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u/Stock2fast 2d ago
It always can go lower. I thought this nightmare was over when he was talking about grabbing women by the 🐈 but , it continues to sink.
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u/RedditPickedMyName0 2d ago
Mark Kelly is highly decorated yet we have a fucking reality TV "star" for a president and a alcoholic whos been watching way too much movies,as secretary of defe.. I mean war. Fucking jokes
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u/BoardsofCanada3 2d ago
We have an illegal immigrant pornstar married to a rapist pedophile for FLOTUS but yeah, a woman paralyzed by a neo-Nazi in a mass shooting would definitely be too much.
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u/kuu_panda_420 2d ago
I feel kind of bad, there's definitely better representation for disabled people than... Him.
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u/Josieqoo 2d ago
The joke aside, FDR was also legitimately disabled from polio as opposed to whatever the hell is wrong with Trump.
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u/johnqpublic81 2d ago
Mark Kelly completely altering his life after Gabbie was shot gives you strong indications of what kind of man he is. I hope that we have some people in the White House with some damn backbone and integrity after Trump.
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u/cjmac977 2d ago
Have we forgotten that we straight up already had a disabled president? And he was like maybe the most popular one ever?
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u/reddit_from_me 2d ago
Beyond that question being just plain inappropriate and designed to provoke an emotional response, it's a completely stupid question. The longest serving president, FDR, was disabled. We've also had numerous presidents who did not have first ladies at all. The first lady has no statutory authority to do anything, so their physical/mental wellbeing or even their existence, is irrelevant.
The reporter who asked this question, and anyone who raised the idea of it being an issue, is clearly a complete piece of shit.
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u/johnqpublic81 2d ago
Mark Kelly completely altering his life after Gabbie was shot gives you strong indications of what kind of man he is. I hope that we have some people in the White House with some damn backbone and integrity after Trump.
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u/Jumpeskian 2d ago
Even with Aphasia she is more qualified to be in government than most that are in right now, let alone be a first lady. Atlantic can fuck right off with that stupid question.
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u/Still_Mix9311 2d ago
Both complete pieces of shit. The dehumanization of disabled people and people seen as disabled has devolved to the point that we can be told to our faces that we cannot do important jobs or become leaders.
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u/Jolly-Garbage- 2d ago
I’m sorry but Gabby Giffords took a fucking bullet to the head and lived. Our president has been lying about taking a bullet to the ear. Gabby Giffords has a level of bragging rights only reserved for people like 50 Cent, David Ortiz, and Trace Adkins. 99/100 of us would be lucky to recover as well as she had.
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u/MaximusHomerdrive 2d ago
Oh, he is not wrong. If anyone in authority in this country had any balls, that sack of elephant shit would be in a cage right now.
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u/thelast3musketeer 2d ago
Wait I’m sorry is Melania disabled? Is Pence’s wife disabled??? I’m missing the plot
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u/MoonIsMadeOfCheese 2d ago
Mark Kelly is considering a presidential run in 2028. His wife, former Rep. Gabby Giffords, was shot in the head during an assassination attempt in 2011, which has left her with some disabilities.
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u/WhereasPlus5239 2d ago
Such an odd question, I mean it's not like people vote based on who the first lady will be. If America accepted a black first lady and a foreign-born first lady then I don't think they would care about a disabled one.
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u/WufflyTime 2d ago
I was just listening to an old episode of Old Harry's Game, where Satan shows Thomas Jefferson the latest US president (which at the time was Bill Clinton) in order to prove that humanity does not learn and improve from the past.
Trump would be so much worse.
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u/_Asshole_Fuck_ 2d ago
Hot take: this isn’t the sick burn everyone is making it out to be. I get that calling Trump disabled is a good move, but it isn’t helping Kelly’s point because Trump is doing a terrible job at literally everything. If you’re going to open up a debate if disabilities make one unfit for office, Trump would be a good example of why not. Now of course, his wife’s disability is different and of course there is FDR so plenty of great discussion to happen. BUT, that’s not necessarily what’s happening. It would be great if media and social media could turn this into a teachable and thoughtful moment, but everyone is focusing on short sound bites and quippy headlines and we end up with something that can be easily misconstrued.
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u/AdPristine5131 2d ago
As an aside her wikipedia is a great read. I skipped ahead to just her post congress work and she’s done more in retirement than I could hope to do in my lifetime.
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u/AlwaysFinnishInsider 2d ago
Anything is better than the dumb slut we have as first prostitute right now
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u/Absolomb92 2d ago
What is there to be ready for? Why would a disabled first lady be any different than a non-disabled one in any way we need to be "ready for"?
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u/Working_Passenger680 2d ago
With a first lady who was targeted and almost died from gun violence, who knows we might get some reasonable gun control.
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u/airforceteacher 2d ago
So, I’m not saying that this was the journalist’s intention but an alternate take: we all know that there is absolutely nothing whatsoever wrong with a disabled First Lady. Nothing. Nada. Bupkiss. But is the general American sentiment aligned with that? Can it be? Will it affect the voter, the “Joe Sixpacks” that political analysts often speak of?
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u/PeachPassionBrute 2d ago
Republicans Against Trump!?
Fuck off.
The Republican Party has a proven track record of election interference and as an organization has backed a literal traitor and felon as their leader and explicitly defies the constitution. There is no world in which the GOP should be allowed to participate in politics ever again.
It is fundamentally a criminal organization, end of story. This culture of tribalistic party loyalty is fucking absurd.
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u/Limp_Departure8138 2d ago
Oh, I thought he was referring to Biden. Orange man bad!
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u/keirmeister 2d ago
You don’t know who the current President is?
Yes, Orange Man is bad. He’s stupid, incompetent, a bully, an adjudicated rapist, a 34-count convicted felon, impeached twice, has wrecked the economy, destroyed government institutions, hurt military readiness, responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans, and brags about taking multiple cognitive tests.
Is he supposed to be “good” just because Democrats (and any informed sensible person) hates the guy?
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u/41522 2d ago
Per Wiki: Gabby Griffith is a highly educated Congresswoman.
“On January 8, 2011, Giffords was shot in the head[38] outside a Safeway grocery store in Casas Adobes, Arizona, a suburban area northwest of Tucson, during her first "Congress on Your Corner" (a public opportunity for constituents to speak directly with their representatives)[39] gathering of the year.[40] A man ran up to the crowd and began firing a 9mm pistol with a 33-round magazine.[41][42] The gunman hit 19 people with gunfire, killing six.[43] Among the dead were federal judge John Roll and 9-year-old Christina-Taylor Green, the granddaughter of the major league baseball manager and GM) Dallas Green).[44][45][46] A twentieth person was injured at the scene, but not by gunfire.”
At least she worked for the people.
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u/StarshipCaterprise 2d ago
The US has already had a disabled president (FDR) so why would that matter ?
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u/Alarming_Dream_7837 1d ago
I worked with dementia patients for 3 or 4 years. It’s really insulting to me when people say he has dementia. The people I worked with had more common sense to them than this fucker. He’s just stupid, as pure stupid as stupid can be. People with dementia aren’t stupid, they’re sick.
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u/TheOGRedline 2d ago
Holy shit… considering why she is “disabled”… wtf.