At a meeting with India's Prime Minister Modi on Friday, President Biden said something shocking — so shocking that he quickly added that he was joking.  But because the "joke" came as he trailed off his words on another subject, one wonders how calculated it was, or if it was a thought that popped into his addled mind:

Transcript via Grabien:

Biden: "I was just thanking the — anyway, I started off without you, and I sold a lot of state secrets and a lot of very important things that we shared."

Watch the 14 seconds again, and focus on P.M. Modi's face as he hears the shocking words...

I wonder how you say "WTF?" in Hindi.

...and then smiles as he realizes it is a joke.

When RNC Research tweeted the remarks without the subsequent reference to joking, Twitter's new feature of adding context corrected the record:

BIDEN (last week): "I sold a lot of state secrets and a lot of very important things..." pic.twitter.com/eyEaQEevRp

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 26, 2023

Still, it's a very odd joke to make, especially in the presence of the head of government of a rising technology state, one that does not have China's reputation for technology theft, but which nonetheless must be sensitive about people thinking that it is stealing U.S. intellectual property.  I doubt that P.M. Modi was amused to even have the possibility of I.P. theft raised as he sat next to the POTUS.

It was stupid thing to joke about, and it appears to have been one of those times when Joe's internal  censor failed him.

 Photo credit: Grabien screen grab (cropped).