OUR GREAT AMERICAN PRESIDENTS
Former U.S. President Joe Biden is widely known to have struggled with stuttering early in his life. However, he is not the only president who faced this challenge. Gerald R. Ford, the 38th president, also stuttered, and there is significant evidence suggesting that Thomas Jefferson, the 3rd president, did as well.
Joe Biden’s public statements about his past stuttering have been numerous and are well known. While serving in the U.S. Senate in the mid-1980’s, he first began to publicly talk about childhood experiences with stuttering. In fact, a 1986 editorial in the Washington Post noted that Biden had publicly discussed his childhood stutter and the hardships he endured speaking publicly in school.
During his 1988 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, he frequently discussed his past struggles with stuttering. This topic would become a recurring theme in his subsequent national campaigns. He told how he practiced his speech by reading poetry alone in front of a mirror, as well as practicing cadences.
JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR. 46TH
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES JANUARY 20, 2021 − JANUARY 20, 2025
During his successful 2020 run for president, he invoked the topic of stuttering countless times, of which one of the most memorable was meeting 13-year-old Brayden Harrington on the campaign trail in New Hampshire. He gave Brayden a hug and said, “Don’t let this define you, you’re smart as hell.” Later, Brayden Harrington was invited to address the Democratic National Convention that summer.
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