The White House appeared to smooth out the language in a speech transcript after President Joe Biden was accused of flubbing spending numbers at an event in Las Vegas.
Biden appeared at the Carpenter International Training Center in Las Vegas on Friday to tout his administration's over $8 billion in railroad investments, including a $3 billion high-speed rail line project connecting Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and San Francisco that many of the union's members will be working on. During his speech, Biden appeared to cite an inaccurate spending figure tied to his 2021 infrastructure bill, before seemingly trying to correct himself to a closer figure.
"On my watch, instead of Infrastructure Week, America is having Infrastructure Decade," Biden said, in reference to the "Infrastructure Weeks" notably held during the Trump administration. "Over a billion three hundred million trillion three hundred million dollars. Trump just talks the talk. We walk the walk."
The remark, delivered at a rapid pace, drew withering responses online from critics of the president, with some individuals and outlets, like the New York Post, characterizing it as a gaffe or a flub in which Biden seemed to invent a fictional number.
"Why does the President of the United States sound exactly like my 4-year-old when he's trying to come up with the highest possible number?" Oren Ross, described as a "Biden critic" by the Post, wrote on social media.
The newspaper also highlighted in its report that the White House's official transcript appeared to correct the numbers, displaying them as "1,300,000,000 — $1,000,300,000,000." However, it is also possible to read this phrasing as an attempt to communicate Biden's possible attempt to correct himself mid-sentence.
Newsweek reached out to the White House via email for comment.
The total spending figure typically associated with the Biden administration's infrastructure bill is $1.2 trillion, sometimes rounded down to $1 trillion, though never, as the transcript listed, $1,000,300,000,000.
Elsewhere in his speech from Friday, Biden touted the jobs that new railway investments will bring, particularly among union workers.
"And here's the best part: It means jobs — union jobs. Jobs, jobs, jobs," he said. "I'm a big environmentalist. That's why I'm always talking about the environment. When I think environment, I think jobs. Thirty-five thousand jobs during the construction phase; ten thousand union jobs in the building trades: carpenters, electricians, ironworkers, laborers, and more. Jobs, and jobs beyond."
He continued: "In fact, once we complete this train line, it's going to be operated by union workers. That means a thousand...that means a thousand new jobs for track and signal workers, on-board workers, shop craft workers, everyone—everyone who works on the rail."
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Thomas Kika is a Newsweek weekend reporter based in upstate New York. His focus is reporting on crime and national ... Read more
