Mayor Wayne Brown has ‘Biden moment’, reveals confidential land purchase offer in council meeting

Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown has had a self-described “Biden moment” when he revealed confidential information on a land deal during a council meeting, referencing the United States president’s frequent mental lapses.

Brown apologised after the gaffe, retracted his misstatement and explained he thought the transport and infrastructure committee meeting had gone to the confidential section where the public would be excluded.

He was speaking about Cyclone Gabrielle-affected land in Muriwai the council would possibly buy that would protect other homes from future landslips. Brown revealed the six-figure sum the council was willing to pay.

“I bet they’re willing sellers at that price,” Brown said after reading out the money being offered.

Brown was quickly pulled up with several people trying to stop him from talking.

“I think that will come up in [the] confidential [section], Your Worship,” Brown was told.

“Oh, I thought we were in confidential. My humble apologies for that. I retract that statement. I had it all wrong,” he responded.

“It was a Biden moment,” Brown said with a wry smile.

The Auckland’s Mayor’s Office said they had no comment to make about Brown’s comments.

Auckland Council’s group recovery manager Mace Ward would not directly comment on the mayor’s accidental release of information, but stressed the importance of confidentiality in all land sale negotiations.

“Yesterday the committee approved a wide-ranging programme of resilience works for Muriwai. The next step is for Crown (government) endorsement of the council’s approach, which includes how joint funding is allocated. Therefore, no agreement has been entered into with landowners.

“Confidentiality is both best practice and necessary in situations like this to protect negotiations – this allows both the council and the property owner the opportunity to carry out a fair and robust negotiation and agreement process.”

Brown’s comments comes a week after Biden’s disastrous debate performance with Donald Trump on CNN, where he stumbled through his words and frequently didn’t finish sentences.

Biden’s performance has raised questions about his mental and physical fitness ahead of the upcoming 2024 election, and has led to high-profile Democrat voices calling for him to pull out of the race.