General Discussion

ShazzieB

(22,758 posts)

10. I had completely forgotten about that!

Sun Apr 19, 2026, 02:22 PM

Apr 19

I had to google to refresh my memory and found an article that explains it much better:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Four years ago, John Roberts blew it. In his debut at swearing in the next president, the Supreme Court chief justice stumbled over the oath at Barack Obama's inauguration ceremony.

That led Obama to mix his words up too and the historic swearing-in of the first African-American president briefly became an awkward muddle.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/world/us-politics/after-fumbled-oath-roberts-and-obama-leave-little-to-chance-idUSBRE90H16M/

So it was Roberts who messed up first, and his flub threw Obama off. The Time account is misleading. I also don't care fot the way the Times article appears to link Roberts' fumble to Obama voting against his confirmation:

Mr. Obama had been one of just 22 senators to vote against Chief Justice Roberts’s confirmation in 2005, saying that the nominee had “far more often used his formidable skills on behalf of the strong in opposition to the weak.” Four years later, the two men managed to botch the simple task of reciting the presidential oath at Mr. Obama’s first inauguration.

The implication is very indirect, but why even mention how Obama voted on Roberts being confirmed unless you want to imply .... something? It's a very strange paragraph all the way around, imo.