“So I want to thank you all for being here. And now, who am I introducing next?” Biden asked after completing his speech.
After a brief and awkward pause, Biden asked again, “Who’s next?” – – clearly snapping at one of the staff.
A staffer called PM Modi on Biden’s behalf — making the incident of the latest gaffes the outgoing US President has made.
“We really don’t have a president. Biden completely FORGOT he was at a press conference with the Prime Minister of India. The entire world is laughing at us. This guy is COOKED,” a user wrote on X.
Joe Biden, who is 81 years old, has made numerous verbal stumbles and gaffes in his public statements this year.
He also tripped over his words at least 118 times during statements, speeches, or comments. White House staff have had to make corrections to official transcripts in order to align the president’s words with public policy stances or to change the meaning of his statements entirely.
In some cases, Biden has misidentified leaders of other countries, such as France, Egypt, and Mexico, or has given the wrong names or titles for people, places, or groups at least 20 times during his remarks.
Notably, during a recent speech at the North America’s building trades unions national legislative conference, Biden, reading from a teleprompter, omitted a scripted “pause” which was later rectified.
The White House staff have also edited in words to appease their coalition or to reflect Biden’s stated reasoning for decisions, such as his Supreme Court nominations and his choice of Vice President Kamala Harris. The president has also struggled with numbers, falsely inflating spending by the executive branch or efforts to vaccinate Americans against Covid-19.
Errors in his State of the Union Address, where he mistakenly claimed “every American voted against” his 2021 American Rescue Plan, have also been rectified. Biden made several notable flubs, including accidentally stating support for “threats to democracy” and mispronouncing the name of a Georgia nursing student who was killed by an illegal migrant.
The White House transcript included 13 emendations to Biden’s speech, while none were made to former President Donald Trump’s last address to Congress in February 2020.
The mixups amended by Biden’s staff do not include dubious suggestions about his personal history or career in public service, such as his recent claim that cannibals ate his uncle during World War II.