Joe Biden confused Ukraine and Iraq twice in 24 hours
- US President Joe Biden, 80, has a long history of verbal gaffes in public remarks
- Biden also mistakenly cited China ‘prime minister’ as his ‘new best friend’
US President Joe Biden slipped up twice in the last 24 hours by confusing the US war in Iraq with the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday on the South Lawn of the White House, Biden said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had been weakened by a shocking mutiny by a mercenary group that’s played a critical role in his war with Ukraine.
“He is clearly losing the war in Iraq,” Biden said of Putin, evidently meaning to refer to Ukraine. “He’s losing the war at home, and he has become a bit of a pariah around the world.”
Biden made a similar mistake while speaking to donors Tuesday evening at a campaign fundraiser in Chevy Chase, Maryland, about his efforts to galvanise US allies in support of Kyiv.
“If anybody told yo– - and my staff wasn’t so sure, eithe– - that we’d be able to bring all of Europe together in the onslaught on Iraq and get Nato to be completely united, I think they would have told you it’s not likely,” the president said, again meaning to say Ukraine.