President Biden is having a rough end to his term of office.
The 81-year-old commander in chief was denied his preferred ice cream flavor Tuesday when a Baltimore shop ran out of chocolate chip — shortly after the lame duck threateningly said he’d like to take the comic who mocked Puerto Rico at a Donald Trump rally Sunday “for a swim.”
Biden had to settle for a scoop of vanilla and a scoop of chocolate — with the shop operator pleading that “I would have made some if I knew you were coming!”
The disappointing treat stop came after Biden stepped on his farewell tour’s messaging about the effects of large spending bills with an off-scrip aside about comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who emerged from relative obscurity by calling Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” at Madison Square Garden as a warm-up act for the 45th president and Republican nominee.
“I’m proud to announce more than $3 billion in funding from my Inflation Reduction Act to help clean up and modernize ports in 27 different states and territories from Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and beyond — including, yes, Puerto Rico,” Biden said at Baltimore’s harbor.
“I’d like take that guy for swim out there,” the commander in chief jabbed before trailing off and saying “anyway.”
“[Rep.] Steny [Hoyer]’s looking at me, ‘Don’t get going, Joe’,” Biden added.
The president did not specify what he would do to Hinchcliffe, 40, on that swim.
Democrats are seeking to use Hinchcliffe’s words to drive turnout among large Puerto Rican populations — such as in Pennsylvania, where nearly 500,000 island descendants live and where the Republican candidate lost by just over 80,000 votes in 2020.
Trump, 78, also is seeking to turn the page on the controversy by rolling out new endorsements from Puerto Ricans as polls show he could increase his standing among Hispanic voters after gaining ground in 2020.
The taunt resembled previous Biden utterances, such as his 2016 remark of Trump that “I wish we were in high school — I could take him behind the gym.”
In 2018, Biden reflected upon that comment and added that he could “beat the hell” out of Trump physically if he did go behind the gym.
Trump has frequently mocked the idea of the frail Democrat pummeling him.
“You know what would happen if he took me behind the barn? I’d go like this,” Trump said earlier this year, blowing a puff of air and gesturing how the breeze would knock Biden off his feet.
“It would happen very fast. It would be over very fast.”
The president made the appearance Tuesday in the safely Democratic state exactly a week before the presidential election between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, who replaced Biden atop the ticket after Democrats mutinied over his apparent cognitive decline, forcing him to step aside on July 21.
Biden will be holed up in the White House later Tuesday as Harris, 60, delivers a widely promoted “closing argument” to voters during a large rally at the Ellipse just south of the executive mansion.
