President Biden speaking at the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health on Wednesday
(Picture: AFP via Getty Images)US President Joe Biden appeared to search the crowd for a deceased congresswoman, as he gave a speech at a conference on hunger on Wednesday.
He publicly sought out Jackie Walorski, seeming to forget the Indiana Congresswoman was killed in a car accident in August, as he thanked conference organisers before asking: “Jackie are you here? Where’s Jackie?”
Mr Biden moved past the issue without any correction.
Ms Walorski, a Republican, was one of four Congressional co-sponsors of a bill to fund the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health.
She died in early August in a crash that also claimed the lives of two aides.
"Jackie, where's Jackie?," Joe Biden says about Rep. Jackie Walorski who died in a car accident a few months ago. pic.twitter.com/khdiesmEsx
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) September 28, 2022
At the time, the White House issued a statement from Mr Biden that said he and his wife Jill were “shocked and saddened” by her sudden death.
“Truly an awful and disgraceful blunder,” Representative Vicky Hartzler, a Missouri Republican, tweeted in reference to Mr Biden’s mistake on Wednesday.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, when asked about the incident later, said the President was “acknowledging her incredible work”.
She added that Mr Biden had already planned to welcome the congresswoman’s family to the White House for a bill signing on Friday. “She was on top of mind,” said Ms Jean-Pierre.
