President Biden joked Monday that he only showed up to a White House event because he heard there would be ice cream — before addressing the horrific mass shooting that left six dead at a Nashville elementary school hours earlier.
“My name is Joe Biden. I’m Dr. Jill Biden’s husband,” the 80-year-old president began his remarks at an East Room gathering of women-owned businesses.
“And I eat Jeni’s ice cream — chocolate chip. I came down because I heard there was chocolate chip ice cream,” he said.
“By the way, I have a whole refrigerator full upstairs,” Biden added at his only scheduled public appearance of the day. “You think I’m kidding? I’m not.”
The president then turned serious to address the shooting at the Covenant School, in which three students and three staff members were killed, calling it “sick” and “a family’s worst nightmare” before demanding once again that Congress pass a ban on assault weapons.
