Biden Thanksgiving Parade Phone Call Gaffe: ‘Can You Hear Me?’

Here’s your post-Thanksgiving dinner palate cleanser for the night.

If you watched, or if you missed watching, or you couldn’t care less, President Biden “phoned in” to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade this morning on NBC shortly after the kickoff in the 9 o’clock hour. The exchange with NBC’s Dylan Dreyer, who should probably rethink that coat, went about as well as practically anything the Biden administration touches which is to say it was awkward and painful.

With a good 30 seconds of silence on live national broadcast television, Biden’s handlers on the other end of the call eventually alerted the President that he was live on the phone and should probably engage in the conversation.

Taker a gander at the video:

Joe Biden's phone call during the #MacysThanksgivingDayParade went as you would expect… pic.twitter.com/2XEZDtjupr

— THAT SOUTHERN DUDE (@TSDmemes) November 24, 2022

Various outlets picked up the story and reported earlier today. In normal circumstances, it wouldn’t make much news, but this is Joe Biden we’re talking about. He’s a gaffe machine and even on holidays, never stops working for the American people:

President Biden and first lady Jill Biden called into NBC’s coverage of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Thursday, but the conversation got off to a rocky start.

NBC’s Dylan Dreyer greeted the president at the beginning of the segment, but the two parties struggled to connect for around 20 seconds.

“Can you hear me, Mr. President?” Dreyer asked.

“We’re here,” Biden responded.

“Oh, I was so worried this call wasn’t going to go through,” said Dreyer.

The president and first lady eventually established a clearer connection and were able to talk about their yearly Thanksgiving trip to Nantucket, Massachusetts, where the Bidens met with and thanked emergency personnel.

The look on Dreyer’s face for the eternity of silence she waits while Joe and Jill seem to mumble back and forth to each other is priceless. Will she have to correct or embarrass the President on live television? These sorts of things are always risky in that they require timing and precise execution to hit the stride and stay on schedule within the confines of a live, well-scripted television event. If you haven’t noticed, precision is not one of President Biden’s strong points.

Dreyer, who was filling in for the ailing Al Roker, handled it like a champ. She tried desperately to hold her composure and alert whoever was listening to the call that they were, in fact, on live television.

Reactions on Twitter were varied and hilarious:

The producers of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade listening to Joe Biden's live phone call: pic.twitter.com/cvizQxyFwm

— THAT SOUTHERN DUDE (@TSDmemes) November 24, 2022

So true, so true.

Also, no offense to any elderly grandparents, but you know who you are:

NBC doing the phone call with President Biden during the parade had massive “FaceTiming your elderly grandparents on a holiday” vibes.

— t-mack (@twm_jr) November 24, 2022

But perhaps the most astute observation came not in ridiculing Biden’s bad phone call but in asking why NBC and Macy’s decided to get political at all by taking a phone call from the President during a holiday entertainment show:

Why is it that the Macy's Thanksgiving parade made it political by a phone call from joe biden? Why can't events such as this be what they use to be, non-political? This is the first time I ever seen or heard a president talk with one of the cohost of the parade.

— Ranter25 (@ranter25) November 24, 2022

Did NBC ever invite President Trump to call in during any previous Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade? Some quick searching shows that never happened as far as I could find. It would be best to keep politics out of holiday entertainment but NBC and friends are eager to try and prop up Biden any way they can.

Now that you know the most important story of the day, or at least the funniest. Enjoy your early Black Friday shopping and get some rest!

Happy Thanksgiving!