Joe Biden mixed up Angela Merkel for a former dead German chancellor twice during a campaign event.
In his latest gaffe, Biden, 81, claimed to have spoken to Helmut Kohl in 2021 at a G7 summit, despite the German politician having been dead for four years.
The 81-year-old had in fact spoken to Merkel at the summit, where leaders were discussing the January 6 Capitol riots, which had happened a few months prior.
Speaking at a fundraiser in New York yesterday, he said: “Helmut Kohl turned to me and said, ‘What would you say, Mr. President, if you picked up the London Times and learned that 1,000 people had broken down the doors of the British parliament, killed some bobbies on the way in, to deny the prime minister to take office.”
Joe Biden confused Angela Merkel with a dead German chancellor twice
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Kohl, who stood down more than 20 years ago, died in 2017, four years before his supposed conversation with Biden took place. Merkel attended the summit as the German chancellor.
Re-delivering the speech given later again that day, Biden made the same mistake.
Less than a week earlier, Biden made a similar mix-up when referring to Emmanuel Macron, confusing him with a dead French politician instead.
The 81-year-old confused Francois Mitterrand, the former French president who died in 1996, for the current leader.
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Biden made the same mistake when he delivered the speech later that day
PASpeaking in front of an audience of hospitality workers in Las Vegas ahead of Tuesday’s primary, he told the same anecdote about the G7 summit.
He said: “Mitterrand from Germany, I mean, from France, looked at me and said. You know, what ... why … how long you back for?", before proceeding to give a speech virtually identical to the one he delivered yesterday.
Mitterrand became French president in 1981 and remained in office until 1995. He died a year later, aged 79.
Biden, who frequently misspeaks and makes blunders in public, has referred to himself as a "gaffe machine".
The President was actually referring to Angela Merkel
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Helmut Kohl, who stood down more than 20 years ago, died in 2017, four years before his supposed conversation with Biden took place
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Yesterday, the President briefly forgot the name of Hamas during a speech. He has recently confused the war in Ukraine with the Iraq War, which ended in 2011, saying that Russia’s Vladimir Putin was "clearly losing the war in Iraq."
Last month, he mixed up Britney Spears and Taylor Swift and bumbled through a speech at a brewery in Wisconsin.
However, Biden's most likely opponent, former President Donald Trump has also made gaffes including mistaking presidential candidate Nikki Haley for Nancy Pelosi, the former House of Representatives speaker, while discussing the January 6 attack.
Posting on social media, President Biden said: "I don't agree with Nikki Haley on everything, but we agree on this much: She is not Nancy Pelosi."
