Politicians often wind up in trouble when they start quoting from the Bible, and Kamala Harris is no exception.
The vice president was widely fact-checked after alluding to what she called “Ecclesiastics,” an apparent reference to the Old Testament book better known as “Ecclesiastes.”
“You know, there’s a time for patience, and there’s a time for impatience,” Ms. Harris said in a speech Wednesday at the Economic Club of Pittsburgh. “That’s not in Ecclesiastics.”
She added with a laugh: “I just went off-script for a minute.”
Her gaffe did not go unnoticed on social media, where the commentary on X included: “This is why she never goes off script,” “Something tells me Kamala does not know much about the Bible,” and “What Bible is she reading?”
The conservative outlet Twitchy Team compiled a list of the cracks under the headline: “Kamala Tried to Pronounce the Name of a Book of the Bible and It Went So Hilariously Bad.”
Kamala: “There’s a time for patience and there’s a time for impatience. That’s not an Ecclesiastics.”
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) September 25, 2024
Pretty sure it’s pronounced “Ecclesiastes” lmfaopic.twitter.com/UywbU3OX8J
The Trump War Room account jumped in with “It’s ‘Ecclesiastes,’ Kamala — not ‘Ecclesiastics,’” which prompted reminders of how former President Donald Trump once fumbled the name of a biblical book.
In a January 2016 speech at Liberty University, he cited “Two Corinthians” instead of “Second Corinthians,” a flub that drew widespread coverage in the mainstream press.
“Trump bungles Bible reference at Liberty University,” said Politico, while the Washington Post reported that “Trump’s ‘Two Corinthians’ reference draws laughs at Liberty University.”
It remains to be seen whether Ms. Harris’s misstep will garner the same level of media mockery, but conservative radio host Todd Starnes said he doubts it.
He pointed to a little-noticed incident in which President Biden, a lifelong Catholic, slipped up not once but twice in his 2020 Thanksgiving address by referring to the “Palmist,” as opposed to the “Psalmist,” meaning one of writers of the Book of Psalms.
“[W]e can with the help of God heal, and if we do, and I’m sure we can, we can proclaim with the Palmist — with the Palmist who wrote these following words: ‘The Lord is my strength and my shield,’” said the then-president elect.
Mr. Biden even had the benefit of a teleprompter. Still, the mistake met with crickets from the media, said Mr. Starnes.
“There were no stories condemning Biden or Harris for their gaffes — not a one,” he said in a Wednesday post. “The media completely ignored their mistakes. But that’s not what happened when President Trump once misspoke about God’s Word … There were literally thousands of stories published in news outlets across the nation.”
Mr. Starnes called it “a great illustration of the Mainstream Media bias against former President Trump.”
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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