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As Biden gaffes go, I wouldn’t say that introducing the Ukrainian leader as “President Putin” is particularly bad. Silly, awkward, absurd, yes — but for once Biden acknowledged his error and corrected himself: “President Putin? We’re gonna beat President Putin. President Zelensky. I’m so focused on beating Putin… We’ve gotta worry about it. Anyway…”
The made-up-on-the-spot excuse showed a certain agility of mind. If anything, Biden’s “I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump” remark later in the day was the more troubling slip: he just blustered on without realizing that he’d muddled Kamala Harris with his chief domestic enemy. Still, Biden has been doing that sort of thing for some time: in February, he confused Emmanuel Macron with “President Mitterrand,” who died in 1996. In May last year, he said he had “spoken at length with President Loon of South Korea.” He meant the South Korean president, Yoon Suk-yeol.
The timing is the problem. After the horror debate last month, the whole world is watching Biden’s every move for signs of decline
Even as a senator, he was called “the gaffe machine from Delaware.” Or as the Washington Post once put it: “Joe Biden isn’t a gaffe machine. He’s the Lamborghini of gaffes.” Before he was vice president, he once called out to Senator Chuck Graham, a wheelchair-bound paraplegic: “Stand up Chuck! Let ’em see ya!”
So his Putin/Zelensky switch-up is hardly that shocking. It’s very much in keeping with the Joe Biden that everyone has known for decades.
The timing is the problem. After the horror debate last month, the whole world is watching Biden’s every move for signs of decline. And because his mental and physical state is deteriorating, he gives them plenty of evidence. At this week’s NATO meeting, on home soil in Washington, he needed to give a flawless performance to reassure the global public that he can function. But he didn’t because he can’t.
Yet all the people on social media now demanding for him to go are unlikely to have their wishes granted. Biden is a stubborn old boy, incapable of being embarrassed. He’s been gaffing for decades. He probably thinks the summit went just fine.
This article was originally published on The Spectator’s UK website.
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