As US President Joe Biden remains defiant that he will run for another term and win, a series of latest verbal gaffes threw a harsh new spotlight at his candidature.
Two weeks after a disastrous debate performance raised fears among Democrats that he may lose to Donald Trump, the 81-year-old President sought to show himself in command as he led the NATO summit in Washington.
While addressing the event, Biden mistakenly introduced Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as “Vladimir Putin”, his Russian foe, before quickly correcting himself.
“And now I want to hand it over to the president of Ukraine, who has as much courage as he has determination, ladies and gentlemen, President Putin,” Biden said as he announced a NATO-Ukraine compact at the summit in Washington.
Biden turned away from the dias before coming back and exclaiming: “President Putin! He’s going to beat President Putin. President Zelenskyy — I’m so focused on beating Putin we gotta worry about it. Anyway, Mr President.”
The error drew gasps from the room but Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s wartime leader against Russia’s 2022 invasion, shrugged it off.
Then at a high-stakes evening news conference afterward, Biden mistakenly referred to “Vice President” Trump.
“Look, I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president [if] I think she’s not qualified to be president,” Biden said, as top Democrats, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin looked on.
Former US President Donald Trump quickly seized on Biden’s flub to unleash on the Democrat. In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, he said, “Crooked Joe begins his ‘Big Boy’ Press Conference with, ‘I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president, though I think she was not qualified to be president.’ Great job, Joe!”
The verbal slip-ups come at a critical time for Biden, who is facing mounting criticism over his age and mental acuity following a disastrous debate performance last month against Republican rival Donald Trump.
So far, 13 of the 213 Democrats in the House and one of the Senate’s 51 Democrats have appealed publicly to Biden to end his re-election campaign. More could make their concerns public if he fares poorly in the coming days.
However, Biden has chosen to stay in the race.
“I think I’m the most qualified person to run for president. I beat him once, and I will beat him again,” Biden said of Trump.
Biden, already the oldest person to be elected the first time to the White House, said he was “not in this for legacy” but to “complete the job” he started.