While addressing a crowd during a fundraiser at Rancho Santa Fe, California, President Biden may have divulged information inadvertently: that he had been asked by former President Jimmy Carter to deliver the eulogy at his funeral services.
Biden said he had spent time with Carter, now under hospice care, “and it’s finally caught up with him, but they found a way to keep him going for a lot longer than they anticipated because they found a breakthrough.”
Biden said that Carter “asked me to do his eulogy” and before he caught the words, he realized “I shouldn’t say that.”
Carter has been under hospice care since last month, having been diagnosed with a form of metastatic melanoma that has spread to his brain. This was discovered while he was undergoing surgery on his liver. The 39th president was also suffering from other ailments.
There was nothing inadvertent about Biden’s announcement about gun control, a measure he has been drumming relentlessly. On Tuesday in Monterey Park, California, Biden explicitly announced an executive order to stoke measures to curb violence resulting from gun shootings. “It’s just common sense,” he said to an audience, where a mass shooting there in January left 11 casualties.
“Today,” Biden declared, “I’m announcing another executive order that will accelerate and intensify this work to save lives.” Included at the event were family members who had lost loved ones in the incident. He also said he would be pushing for stronger background checks on those seeking to purchase weapons.
For many Americans, Biden’s words were a familiar refrain and it will be all the more challenging to get the measure through a divided Congress.
As we go to press, it was reported that a Russian jet had collided with a U.S. drone over the Black Sea. It’s a developing story that multiplies the chances of a clash between Russia and the U.S.
Several accounts suggest it was only a pilot’s mistake and that the drone was not targeted, although one report said the Russian plane forced the drone down after it had been damaged in the collision.