Man said ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ to Joe Biden - and his response was unexpected

Joe Biden fielded phone-calls from excited children as part of a presidential Christmas tradition - but all didn’t go to plan.

The president and First Lady were speaking to families around the country who had called into the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) hotline on Christmas Eve, for an ‘update’ on Santa Claus’ location.

Unfortunately, one phone-call ended with the child’s father saying to the president ‘Let’s go Brandon’ - a right-wing euphemism for ‘f*** Joe Biden’.

Somewhat surprisingly, Mr Biden responded: “Let’s go Brandon, I agree.”

Some thought he’d understood the reference and was attempting to cooly play it off, however NBC News said that he “did not appear to recognize” the phrase’s connotations.

Earlier this year, a video from a NASCAR race at Alabama’s Talladega Superspeedway went viral on social media after a reporter claimed the crowd were chanting ‘Let’s go Brandon!’ when they were actually shouting ‘F*** Joe Biden.’

Since then, it’s become a constant refrain in right-wing circles - to such an extent that the driver who inadvertently inspired the meme, Brandon Brown, said this week that he regretted that it had become an anti-Biden slogan.

When asked in early November what Biden thought of the phrase, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said: “I don’t think he spends much time focused on it or thinking about it.”

After the latest call went viral on Twitter, a bunch of people from MAGA-land piled in, saying that Biden’s response heralded the fall of civilization:

But others, rightly, pointed out that it was a bizarrely mean and immature thing to do during a Christmas phone-call between the president and your child:

Meanwhile Ted Cruz, never willing to pass up an opportunity to insert himself into the latest Twitter drama for some attention, asked people to text the word ‘Brandon’ to his marketing number to be added to his mailing list:

In 2018, Donald Trump made an iconic gaffe during a call with one seven-year-old - by throwing doubt on the very existence of Santa.

“Are you still a believer in Santa?” Trump said to the child, “because at 7, it’s marginal, right?”

Mr Trump, who did not appear to realise that he’d told a child that Santa Claus did not exist, laughed to himself for a moment before concluding with: “Well, you just enjoy yourself”.

For more than 60 years, NORAD has told children that it is tracking Santa, and in recent years launched a website with the latest data on the big man’s location.