Chuck Schumer's Insurrection Gaffe Has People Blushing
If you've ever completely stumbled over your words during a business presentation and felt mortified, don't beat yourself up too much. Chances are your mistake wasn't as cringeworthy as Sen. Chuck Schumer's, who kicked off his first week as Senate majority leader by making an, uh, more-than-slightly embarrassing gaffe while discussing the impeachment of Donald Trump.
In a video clip posted to Twitter by HuffPost labor reporter Dave Jamieson, Sen. Schumer is shown speaking about impeachment. As a refresher, the House impeachment article pertains to the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol that occurred during the Electoral College vote count on Jan. 6. Trump was impeached by the House for a second time a week later on Jan. 13, and now the trial heads to the Senate floor.
"Make no mistake," Schumer stated. "There will be a trial and when that trial ends, senators will have to decide if they believe Donald John Trump incited the erection... insurrection... against the United States." Um, yikes.
Schumer isn't the first to mix up "erection" and "insurrection"
It seems like a pretty strange mistake to mix up the words "insurrection" and "erection" (they don't sound that much alike), but apparently Sen. Schumer isn't the first to make the unfortunate flub. In the replies to Jamieson's tweet, HuffPost environment reporter Chris D'Angelo commented "big week for this," accompanied by a video of Anderson Cooper making the exact same fumble just a few days ago on Jan. 19.
As Cooper discussed Trump's farewell video, he noted that the former president stated that he fought for America and everything the country stands for — something Cooper believes he'll continue to say for the rest of his life. "But just two weeks ago he did incite an erection on the Capitol... an insurrection on the Capitol," Cooper said.
Needless to say, social media had a field day with Schumer's bungle and his visible shudder the moment after he said the word "erection" and quickly corrected himself. Puns abounded, while one sympathetic Twitter user offered an anecdote from middle school: "That's ok, Chuck," user @AnnesGotClass tweeted. "I once mispronounced 'organism' in seventh grade science class." There's never a dull moment in politics.