We’ve All Recognized Biden’s Stuttering Habit, but Why Does He Do It?

If you've ever had to give a speech in front of a class, you know that sometimes, the words don't come out exactly as you planned them in your mind. As it turns out, that phenomenon is something that President Joe Biden is familiar with too.

President Biden has dealt with a stutter for decades now, and it's not totally uncommon for people to wonder about it. While you may occasionally hear it in some of his speeches, people like Donald Trump have mocked him for it. During a 2024 campaign event in Rome, Ga., Trump mimicked Biden's State of the Union address with a stammer, and the crowd ate it up.

Fortunately, Biden has been open about his experience with stuttering, emphasizing that it's no joking matter.

The politician has struggled with a stutter since he was a child and recalled being bullied about it throughout his youth, including by a Catholic nun in middle school. Biden particularly dreaded one classroom exercise that required the students to take turns reading passages out loud.

"I could count down how many paragraphs, and I’d memorize it, because I found it easier to memorize than look at the page and read the word. I’d pretend to be reading," he said of his internal prep work in an interview with The Atlantic. 

The now-81-year-old vividly remembers the text he was reciting when his schoolteacher interrupted him. "The paragraph I had to read was: 'Sir Walter Raleigh was a gentleman…' And I said, 'Sir Walter Raleigh was a gentle man who—' and then the nun said, 'Mr. Biden, what is that word?'"

He knew that she wanted him to say "gentleman" instead of "gentle man," but before he could continue, the nun asked mockingly, "'Mr. Buh-Buh-Buh-Biden, what’s that word?'"

Though that moment had a long-lasting effect on the future president, he didn’t allow his stammer to prevent him from pursuing a high-profile career. "Be mindful of people who are in situations where their difficulties do not define their character, their intellect," he expressed. "That’s what I tell stutterers. You can’t let it define you."

A speech given by the then-13-year-old Brayden Harrington proved to be one of the highlights of 2020’s Democratic National Convention because it revealed a side of Joe Biden that the public rarely gets to see.

"About a few months ago, I met him in New Hampshire," Brayden shared, referring to his first encounter with Biden at a campaign event in February. "He told me that we were members of the same club: We stutter. It was really amazing to hear that someone like me became vice president."

The teen explained that Biden invited him backstage and spent a half-hour giving him tips on how to control his stutter. "He showed me how he marks his addresses to make them easier to say out loud. So I did the same thing today," Brayden said, flipping his paper over to show the scribbles.

"I'm just a regular kid, and in a short amount of time, Joe Biden made me feel more confident about something that's bothered me my whole life," he noted. "Joe Biden cared. Imagine what he could do for all of us. Kids like me are counting on you to elect someone we can all look up to. Someone who cares."

This story still brings tears to our eyes.