Biden recalls recent meeting with long-dead French leader — RT World News
The gaffe-prone US politician wrongly claimed to have spoken to François Mitterrand after he was elected president
US President Joe Biden appeared to conflate French President Emmanuel Macron with the late Francois Mitterrand when he described the 2021 G7 meeting at a campaign event on Sunday.
Speaking in Las Vegas, Biden recalled how shortly after being elected president he went to southern England to meet with the prime ministers of six other prominent Western economies, whom he inaccurately described as “All NATO leaders.”
I sat down and said: America is back. And Mitterrand, from Germany – I mean from France – looked at me and said – “You know what – why – how long will you be back?” Biden said.
Mitterrand served as President of France from 1981 to 1995 and died a year after leaving office at the age of 79. The official White House transcript of Biden's speech identifies the person who spoke with him at the G7 event, held in Cornwall in June 2021, as Emmanuel Macron.
Watch: Joe Biden says he recently met “Mitterand from Germany.” Mitterrand was President of France between 1981 and 1995. He also died in 1996. pic.twitter.com/W0YPBDp69n
– Merciful. (@Rahim Qassem) February 5, 2024
The current US president is known to be prone to gaffes, with his critics claiming that such incidents have become more frequent, citing them as evidence of the 81-year-old politician's mental decline. During the same speech on Sunday, he praised a $3 billion project to build a high-speed rail line, set to connect Las Vegas to Los Angeles. Biden said people will be able to travel “From here to Las Vegas” Within two hours before he corrected himself.
Biden's supporters have largely downplayed these concerns, while highlighting similar issues affecting former President Donald Trump, his presumptive Republican rival in the presidential race. There have been several instances where the 77-year-old has appeared to take foul play with his words during campaign rallies, and he recently appeared to confuse Republican rival Nikki Haley with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Although a rematch between Biden and Trump in November is almost inevitable, most American voters view it as a bad outcome. In a national poll conducted by UMass-Amherst earlier this month, more than half of respondents said they would prefer not to have to choose between the two at the ballot box. Among Democrats, 37% said it would be better if Biden did not seek a second term, while 29% of Republicans said the same about Trump.
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