Macron confused: Joe Biden (81) has another misfire

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US President Joe Biden has once again caused a stir with a public slip of the tongue. A video clip from an election campaign event spread quickly across online networks on Monday, in which Biden first confused French President Emmanuel Macron with his predecessor François Mitterrand, who died nearly three decades ago – and then called him Germany’s head of state.

At the event in Las Vegas, the 81-year-old, who is likely to run again for the Democrats in November’s presidential election, spoke about Macron’s reaction to a speech at a G7 summit in 2020.

According to a White House transcript, Biden said: “And Mitterrand – Macron, from Germany – I mean, from France, looked at me and said, ‘You know what – why – how long have you been back?’” Mitterrand was present served as President of France from 1981 to 1995. He died in 1996.

Not the first failure

On the online service X (formerly Twitter) alone, an image of Biden’s slip of the tongue was viewed thousands of times and shared hundreds of times. Biden, the oldest sitting US president, has had similar public outbursts several times.

At a conference in September 2022, he apparently thought MP Jackie Walorski, who died a month earlier, was among the listeners. Biden said, “Jackie, are you here? Where’s Jacky?” And added: “I think she should be here.”

Last April, in a speech in Ireland, Biden confused the All Blacks, New Zealand’s national rugby team, with the British military unit Blacks and Tans, which is still infamous in the country for its role in the Irish War of Independence.

In January, his by far most likely challenger in the presidential election, 77-year-old Republican former President Donald Trump, also noted another failure.

He confused his former UN ambassador and current internal party opponent Nikki Haley with former Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi. Haley responded in a speech questioning Trump’s mental fitness. (AFP)

Source: Blick