'Hardest job in the world has to be the person who does sign language for this guy': President Biden is mocked for stumbling through a line about universal pre-K during campaign event for Terry McAuliffe

 Gaffe-prone President Biden stumbled his way through a line on universal pre-K during a stump speech for Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe on Tuesday night and Republicans were quick to take notice. 

'In fact, we're taking a page from Terry's book when he was governor and when he'd be governor next time,' Biden told a crowd in Arlington, Va. 

'We're emerging from this pandemic, we want to expand pre-K for 3- and 4-year-olds — millions of [inaudible] students.'

Biden's Build Back Better agenda includes nationwide pre-kindergarten.  

The Republican National Committee posted a 15-second clip of the video to Twitter with the caption, 'Huh?' 

Critics have been quick to point to the 78-year-old president's frequent blunders as signs of his cognitive decline, while defenders have called such attacks hyper-partisan and noted that Biden has struggled to overcome a stutter throughout his life. 

'Oh my! Joe's gibberish is maybe reason Terry McAuliffe said Biden would be a "drag" on his election. McAuliffe pretends he can make sense of what Joe is saying. He can't. No one can,' said former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. 

'This is serious. He isn’t all there. Everyone sees it,' Trump-era acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell wrote on Twitter of the moment.  

'Hardest job in the world has to be the person that does sign language for this guy………….OMG!!!!' one Twitter user wrote.  

'This is #ElderAbuse!' another Twitter user said. 

When your mouth gets ahead of your already damaged brain,' said another. 

Meanwhile, the White House has been careful to limit the president's exposure to the press in a telling move that limits his opportunity for mistakes. Biden has repeatedly told the press 'I'm not supposed to take questions,' and  'I've been instructed to call on...' raising questions about who is really in control. 

McAuliffe has called in his party's biggest names as he fights the battle of his political life to retake the governor's seat as a Democrat. If McAuliffe were to lose to Republican Glenn Youngkin, it would be the first time a Democrat lost a statewide seat in the state where Biden won by 10 points since 2009. 

McAuliffe first served as governor of the Old Dominion from 2014 to 2018, but under Virginia's unusual law governors cannot serve two consecutive terms.  

Polls have shown McAuliffe and Youngkin in an almost dead heat, but even McAuliffe himself seems unsure that an endorsement from the president really help. Biden is now polling at the lowest number at this point in the new term of any president other than Donald Trump, and has lost 11 points since taking office. 

Vice President Kamala Harris held a fundraiser for McAuliffe last month. 

McAuliffe admitted that Biden was 'unpopular' in his state earlier this month. 

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'In fact, we're taking a page from Terry's book when he was governor and when he'd be governor next time,' Biden told a crowd in Arlington, Va. 'We're emerging from this pandemic, we want to expand pre-K for 3- and 4-year-olds — millions of [inaudible] students'

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McAuliffe has called in his party's biggest names as he fights the battle of his political life to retake the governor's seat as a Democrat

'We've got to get Democrats out to vote,' McAuliffe said in a leaked clip of a teleconference. 'We are facing a lot of headwinds from Washington, as you know.' 

'The president is unpopular today unfortunately here in Virginia so we have got to plow through.' 

Biden, in his endorsement  of the former governor, nationalized the race by trying to tie Youngkin to Trump.

Virginia grew more blue during the Trump years, securing a majority-Democratic legislature in 2019 for the first time since 1996. 

'How well do you know Terry’s opponent?' Biden asked a crowd of McAuliffe supporters. 'Well just remember this. I ran against Donald Trump. And Terry is running against an acolyte of Donald Trump,' he said, tearing into Youngkin, the GOP candidate. 

With the tight election in Virginia likely to reverberate across national politics after Election Day next month, Biden pointed to Youngkin's statement about election 'integrity' to paint him as a pawn of Trump.

'This guy starts that he's calling for election integrity … Now why did he do that?' Biden asked the crowd.

He said he did it because he wanted to hear from Trump. 'There was a price he’d have to pay for the nomination, and he paid it,' Biden said. 'But now he doesn't want to talk about Trump anymore. Well, I do. Talk about an oxymoron: Donald Trump an election integrity.'