Joe Biden coughs repeatedly, stumbles over Trump’s name at speech in New Hampshire

Whether Democrats want to admit it or not, the status their 2020 frontrunner’s health — both physical and mental — has come under increasing scrutiny.

And that scrutiny only increased Saturday when former Vice President Joe Biden stumbled over several words and coughed numerous times while delivering a speech in New Hampshire.

Biden’s blunders

According to The Washington Examiner, Biden was addressing the New Hampshire Democratic Party Convention on Saturday morning when he began to cough repeatedly while offering up some critical commentary of President Donald Trump and his policies.

Biden also mispronounced the president’s name at one point, calling him Donald “Hump,” though he did correct himself.

The 76-year-old’s word jumbling came as the candidate repeated canned lines warning of the alleged danger posed by Trump’s re-election in 2020.

“I believe history will look back at this presidency as an aberrant moment in time. But if ‘Donald Hump’ — Donald Trump is re-elected,” Biden began before acknowledging his “Freudian slip,” “If Donald Trump is re-elected, he will forever and fundamentally alter the character of this nation.”

Mistakes and missteps

The former VP later struggled to say the word “existential” when attempting to describe the level of threat posed to the nation by President Trump.

“Donald Trump does pose an exis– it’s not hypothetical, his threat to this nation,” Biden said. “He does pose a real threat.”

Take a look at a clip of Biden’s speech, published by The Washington Examiner:

Looking forward

To be sure, while Biden’s cough could be indicative of a deeper medical issue, it could also just be a sign that Biden has grown tired on the campaign trail, or is suffering from allergies or even a summer cold.

Likewise, Biden’s struggle to pronounce certain words — or remember all of the lines of his prepared remarks — could be a symptom of diminished mental capacity. But then again, it could also just have been a sign of his weariness — and given his history of lacking eloquence, it’s nothing out of the ordinary.