President Joe Biden commended Americans yesterday for their strength and resilience in the face of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, urging “hope and renewal” during the holiday season.
In his first Christmas address as president, Biden praised “the enormous courage, character, resilience, and resolve in all of you who heal, comfort, teach, and protect and serve in ways big and small”.
“You show there is much to gain in appreciation and gratitude for the gift of time and goodwill we share as we look out for one another,” he said in a statement with First Lady Jill Biden. “Again and again, you show how our differences are precious and our similarities infinite.”
Biden, a Catholic, went on, saying that “for the nation, we pray for the promise found in Scripture – of finding light in the darkness, which is also perhaps the most American of things to do”.
With Americans battered by the deadly pandemic and economic hardship exacerbated by record-high inflation, the presidential couple have focused on end-of-year traditions – pardoning a turkey on Thanksgiving and decorating the White House for Christmas – to send messages of hope and joy.
However, with the country rocked by deep political divisions, even a Christmas Eve greeting turned sour for Biden on Friday, when a man to whom he was wishing a merry Christmas during a video call from the White House, launched at him with an insult that is popular among supporters of Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump.
The vulgar anti-Biden slogan made for an awkward moment during Biden’s phone calls with children tracking Santa’s flight when a father said: “Let’s Go Brandon.”
The refrain, a sanitised version of “(Expletive) Joe Biden”, has been an Internet sensation since a television journalist told race car driver Brandon Brown that a NASCAR crowd shouting the vulgarity was actually saying, “Let’s go Brandon.”
Biden and his wife Jill were taking calls into the North American Aerospace Defence Command Santa Tracker, which follows the progress of Santa’s reindeer-guided sleigh for millions of children.
At the end of one call, a parent who gave his name as Jared said: “Merry Christmas, and let’s go Brandon.”
“Let’s go Brandon, I agree,” a relaxed Biden responded, before asking Jared if he was in Oregon.
By that point, the call was disconnected.
Much about the Christmas Eve exchange was not immediately clear, including what the caller intended, why Biden repeated the slogan, and whether either knew the origin of the phrase.
The White House did not respond to requests seeking comment.
Jared’s full name and contact information were not immediately available.
The slogan has become popular among supporters of former president Trump, who caused a social media storm during his own Christmas Eve phone call with children in 2018.
Trump asked seven-year-old Collman Lloyd from South Carolina if she still believed in Santa “because at seven it’s marginal, right?”
Lloyd later told the media that she did indeed believe in Santa and had no idea what marginal meant.
Race car driver Brandon Brown himself has expressed displeasure at the appropriation of his name for an anti-Biden slogan.
“I don’t want to be the substitute for a cuss word,” he recently told the New York Times.