Former President Joe Biden raised eyebrows Tuesday at Syracuse University after making an awkward onstage remark comparing a Black member of the school’s Board of Trustees to former President Barack Obama.

Biden returned to his alma mater Tuesday to celebrate the unveiling of his portrait, which will be permanently displayed in the law school’s Law Library Reading Room.

Video shows Biden speaking at the podium, addressing the law school’s leadership by name before making the awkward joke.

“I always want to turn around to one guy and say.. ‘Barack what are you doing?” Biden said as the audience laughed.

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He then motioned for the man off camera to join him on stage. The man is Jeffrey M. Scruggs, chairman of the school’s Board of Trustees.

“I feel like he should be standing on the right and I should be standing on the left,” Biden said as Scruggs and the audience laughed.

Commentators on social media debated the moment, with critics remarking that Biden, a well-known gaffe machine, was showing his age. Others defended the president, saying it was clearly a joke.

Biden’s following speech was personal and reflective, crediting family, classmates and mentors for his career while recounting how Syracuse Law shaped his belief in using the law to advance dignity, equality and democracy. He discussed his path from law student to public service through moments of national upheaval and personal tragedy, highlighted his late son Beau’s legacy, and described his commitment to “dignity, respect, fairness, equality.”

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In his closing remarks, Biden touched on his legacy and said he hoped he’d be remembered for his fight for democracy.

“As I began to build my presidential library and foundation, [I] hope to pass down to future generations a reverence for democracy,” Biden said. “And my classmates and I learned here at Syracuse because whatever, whatever my legacy may be, I hope will be said that I never stopped striving for the cause of democracy.”

“And I hope that long after I’m gone on future classes of Syracuse law students see the portrait and the reminder, not of me, but of the greatness and power of our democracy and of their obligation to do their part to preserve, protect, defend our Constitution,” Biden continued.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Office of Joe and Jill Biden for comment.

Erika Kirk canceled her planned appearance at a Turning Point USA event at the University of Georgia on Tuesday after receiving what organizers described as “very serious threats.”

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Turning Point USA spokesman Andrew Kolvet said Erika Kirk, wife of late conservative icon Charlie Kirk, received “some very serious threats in her direction,” prompting her absence from the event in Athens, Georgia.

Vice President JD Vance said he had been concerned the event might be canceled and spoke with the Secret Service, adding he told Kirk to “do what she needs to do for her and her family.”

Sherrone Moore avoided jail time Tuesday stemming from an alleged stalking incident after getting fired from the University of Michigan.

The disgraced former Wolverines head coach was fired in December after an investigation revealed an inappropriate relationship with a staffer. Soon after the firing, he was jailed after allegedly breaking into the staffer’s house and threatening to kill himself.

Moore was placed on 18 months’ probation and ordered to pay just over $1,000 in fines. He also must continue mental health treatment and may not use alcohol or marijuana, may not have any weapons, and was ordered to have no contact with the alleged victim.

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In the Ann Arbor courtroom, Moore thanked his wife, Kelli, for her support while stating that he took the process “very seriously.”

“There is a certain irony in a lot of this – the person quite frankly, Mr. Moore, who is saving you from the full wrath of this court is the one you betrayed,” Judge Cedric Simpson said to the former coach. “I don’t know where your wife, Kelli, finds her strength.

“When all the circumstances are happening and they’re happening to her and she’s absorbing them in real time, she does not once lose her focus. She not once bats an eye to sort of doubt you. She not once wants something terrible to happen for you.

“As I listen to the terror in her voice that day, I don’t think there would be anybody in the world … that would’ve blamed her given the circumstances if she said ‘I don’t care.’ That’s not what she did. … She was going to tell the police to do this to try to find him. She said something remarkable — ‘Tell him I love him and to come home.'”

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Prosecutors accused Moore of contacting the staffer via phone calls and texts after the breakup, prompting the woman to contact the University of Michigan and cooperate in its investigation. Moore was subsequently fired from his position as head football coach, which prosecutors said prompted him to show up at her home.

Moore then allegedly “barged” his way into the residence, grabbed a butter knife and a pair of kitchen scissors and began threatening his own life. According to prosecutors, Moore allegedly told the staffer, “My blood is on your hands” and “You ruined my life.”

Moore pleaded no contest to two misdemeanors later in the day to resolve the felony criminal case.

Kelli called 911 over concerns that her husband was “going to hurt himself” after getting “fired from his job.”

Moore and the alleged victim had an “intimate relationship for a number of years,” a prosecutor said during an initial hearing shortly after his arrest.

Moore went 16-8 as Michigan’s head coach — 8-5 in Year One, 7-3 last season. He missed a pair of games due to a suspension from a sign-stealing investigation.

Moore replaced Jim Harbaugh after the team completed a 15-0 season en route to a national championship. Moore was the offensive coordinator of that squad.

Fox News’ Paulina Dedaj and Jackson Thompson contributed to this report.

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