President Joe Biden accidentally revealed a cheat sheet on Thursday in which even the smallest details were typed out in bold, ensuring almost nothing was left to chance.
During a meeting with wind-industry executives in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, the president inadvertently flipped his card upon which had been typed stage directions, telling him when to sit and when to ask questions.
Biden, who at the age 79, has a tendency to ramble when not strictly ‘on message’, had clearly meant to keep the chart close to his chest while hosting the meeting, but it was facing the cameras allowing photographers to snap every minor detail, some of which were particularly comical.
Rather than refer to ‘The President’ by name, whoever typed up the note had clearly intended it to be for presidential eyes only and instead referred to Biden as ‘YOU’, in bold, upper case lettering.
President Biden revealed an extraordinarily detailed cheat sheet for his meeting
Eight bullet points reminded him when to sit down and whom to ask questions of. It even detailed his departure and advised him to limit questions to two minutes
Biden held his cheat sheet towards press photographers who were able to snap a clear shot
The detailed instructions were entitled ‘Offshore Wind Drop-By Sequence of Events’ and told Biden to ‘enter the Roosevelt Room and say hello to participants.’
Then strip of paper then told the president to sit down: ‘YOU take YOUR seat’, it instructed.
The note then told the president to speak once the reporters had been brought into the room: ‘YOU give brief comments (2 minutes)’, it detailed.
After the reporters departed, Biden was told to speak to some of those present at the meeting.
‘YOU ask Liz Shuler, President, AFL-CIO, a question’ and then ‘YOU thank participants’ and ‘YOU depart.’
For all intents and purposes, the meeting appeared to go according to plan with Biden sticking to the script, apart from when he exposed his personalized meeting plan to photographers.
Biden has continued to use such notes throughout his presidency and notes are sometimes handed to him during very public moments.
President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, on Thursday, with governors, labor leaders, and private companies launching the Federal-State Offshore Wind Implementation Partnership
President Biden points to a wind turbine size comparison chart during a meeting about the Federal-State Offshore Wind Implementation Partnership in the Roosevelt Room of the White House
President Biden was prompted to wipe a yellow mark from his face during a Zoom meeting with state governors on Friday after a staffer handed him a note saying: ‘Sir, there is something on your chin’
Last July, an aide handed him note stating: ‘Sir, there is something on your chin.’
It alerted the president there had been something on his face for roughly the first 10 minutes of his virtual meeting.
Biden had a yellow dot below his mouth, but he carried on talking. He was then handed a note, prompting him to wipe his chin and look at his hand.
Biden again held the note so that it was available for all reporters and photographers to read.
The note was only visible because Biden used the same notecard to scribble notes during the meeting.
When he held it up, photographers in the room were able to capture the written advice
He showed up the note to the camera during the Zoom conference last July
Earlier this year, Biden was mocked for using a printed ‘cheat sheet’ of answers to expected questions when he faced the media to discuss the Ukraine war.
The notes read: ‘If you weren’t advocating for regime change, what did you mean? Can you clarify?’
Another of Biden’s notes read: ‘Is this now threatening to splinter unity with your NATO allies?’
Biden already had an answer prepared on the printed card: ‘No. NATO has never been more united.’
Biden regularly uses cue cards, and was photographed frequently with them during the campaign trail before taking office.
He would often take from his pocket the daily totals of COVID cases, which he referenced regularly.
He also used them to give precise details at a Town Hall before the election, as he fielded a question about taxes.
‘I carry this card with me,’ Biden said, referencing the card.
He used several cheat sheets during his first presidential press conference, including one with the headshots and names of reporters he planned to call on.
Biden also utilized notes during a 2021 summit with Putin, while touring the damage of Hurricane Ida in Louisiana and while calling on reporters at the G20 summit in Rome.
Images taken during President Joe Biden’s first press conference in March 2021 showed him using cheat sheets including one that showed the headshots (pictured) of journalists he planned to call on
President Joe Biden holds notes in hand as he speaks during his first formal press conference of his presidency in March 2021