Joe Biden has attempted to brand himself with several different nicknames over the years in an effort to attract voters. This is a reasonable strategy for Biden given the lack of tangible achievements on which he can hang his hat. Most recently, both Biden and Press Secretary Jen Psaki championed the nickname “Sheriff Joe” for the president which is of course the actual nickname of former Maricopa county Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Apparently “Plagiarist Joe” should be included in his list of nicknames. Below is a series of Biden nicknames, including one that is gaining serious traction over the past month courtesy of an NBC reporter at a NASCAR race.
Throughout the 2020 election cycle, the media bombarded the public with nicknames for Biden, the most common of which was “Middle Class Joe.”
“You’re ‘Middle Class Joe,’” NBC’s Chuck Todd declared directly to Biden during a sit-down interview.
“He was called ‘Middle Class Joe’ for decades in the Senate,” according to Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.)
Biden agrees with this representation. “I’ve been referred to as ‘Middle Class Joe.’ It’s not always been as a compliment. It’s usually that I’m not sophisticated.”
Biden has also embraced the “Amtrak Joe” moniker, saying of himself, “My name is Joe Amtrak Biden.”
Apparently this name is one that Biden is quite fond of. “They called him ‘Amtrak Joe,’ and he loves that nickname,” gushed CNN reporter Jeff Zeleny.
NBC’s Andrea Mitchell worked two separate nicknames into one remark, “‘Working Class Joe,’ ‘Joe from the Neighborhood.’”
CNN’s Nia-Malika Henderson managed to top Mitchell by hitting the trifecta and using three Biden nicknames in one go. “‘Scranton Joe,’ ‘Average Joe,’ ‘Middle Class Joe,’ whatever nickname you want to have for him.”
Despite the effort to relentlessly push Biden nicknames in an attempt to make him seem more relatable to voters, these phrases seem to lack the popularity and staying power of the final two we will discuss.
“‘Sleepy Joe Biden,’” President Trump repeatedly declared in rallies and press conferences throughout the 2020 campaign. Trump was proven more right than he knew as Biden has appeared to nod off with cameras present twice during the first year of his presidency. During a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, ‘Sleepy Joe’ seemed to take a 30-second power nap, and more recently at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, Biden dozed off again as the enthralling topic of climate change was more than he could handle.
However, the most popular nickname for Biden, and the one that seems to have the most staying power is the phrase “Let’s Go Brandon” which rocketed to instant popularity following an NBC reporter’s claim that this phrase was being chanted by a NASCAR crowd when they were clearly shouting, “F*** Joe Biden.” ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ has since taken off as a cultural trend with the chant being heard from crowds in a variety of venues. Governor Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) has even made direct reference to “The Brandon Administration,” and Rep. Bill Posey (R-Fla.) proclaimed, “Let’s Go Brandon,” to close out a speech on the floor of Congress.
So while ‘Amtrak Joe,’ ‘Middle Class Joe,’ and now ‘Sheriff Joe’ attempt to convince the American people that Biden is just another ‘Average Joe,’ the public has made up its mind on the best way to refer to the current president.
And with that said, “Let’s Go Brandon.”