NEWSPresident Joe Biden Sparks Controversy After Spelling Out 'Dot' In Dot Com URL
Oct. 18 2022, Published 3:25 p.m. ET
Spelling B(iden)! President Joe Biden raised eyebrows this week after offering an impromptu spelling lesson while sharing a new government anti-fraud website aimed at preventing scams surrounding his administration’s new student loan relief plan, spelling out the word “dot” while reading the URL off a teleprompter.
On Monday, October 17, the Commander-in-Chief addressed a crowd in downtown Washington D.C., where he explained the logistics of the new initiative aimed at offering Americans earning a yearly salary of less than $125,000 up to $10,000 in federal student debt forgiveness.
After detailing the application process — one Biden touted as taking “less than five minutes” to complete — 45 offered a word of caution involving potential scams exploiting his headline-making program.
“you’re going to receive these calls. I tell anybody who has — who’s qualifying for these loans, or trying to qualify for these loans,” he stated. “If you get a call pretending they’re from the government trying to help you with your loans, let’s be clear: Hang up.”
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Alongside advising Americans to not engage with these potential con-artists — “you never have to pay for any federal help from the Student Loan Program,” Biden added — POTUS urged potential victims to report phony phonings at ReportFraud.FTC.gov. Yet in sharing the website, POTUS seemingly stumbled over the teleprompter, providing an inadvertent lesson on how to spell the word “dot.”
“If you get any questionable calls, please tell us by going to ReportFraud — ReportFraud — d-o-t — FTC.gov,” he quipped.
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Despite only spelling out one of the two dots in the website’s URL, Biden’s mere 50% success rate seemingly sparked questions online, with several people, including conservative influencer Clay Travis, drawing comparisons to an incident in Will Ferrell’s 2004 comedy Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.
“Joe Biden spelled out D-O-T that’s the . in an email address today,” he quipped on Twitter. “He really is Ron Burgandy.”
