Las Vegas: US President Joe Biden, who has been deemed to be the main contender of his predecessor Donald Trump for the upcoming Presidential elections, again stunned the world with another gaffe by saying he recently met a French president who had died around three decades ago. While addressing a crowd in Las Vegas on Sunday, Biden, who turned 81 last November, erroneously reminisced about his recent conversation with former French president Francois Mitterrand who died in January 1996. According to Biden, he had met Mitterrand during a 2021 meeting with world leaders.
"You know, right — right after I was elected, I went to what they call a G7 meeting, all the NATO leaders. And it was in — it was in the south of England. And I sat down and I said, “America is back", read the transcript of Biden's speech released by the White House.
"And Mitterrand [Macron], from Germany — I mean, from France looked at me and said — said, “You know, what — why — how long you back for?” (Laughter.) And I looked at him, and the — and the Chancellor of Germany said, “What would you say, Mr President, if you picked up the paper tomorrow in the London Times, and London Times said, ‘A thousand people break through the House of Commons, break down the doors, two Bobbies are killed in order to stop the election of the Prime Minister.’ What would you say?” he added.
VIDEO: Joe Biden recalls his recent meeting with French President Francois Mitterrand
Who was Francois Mitterrand?
Notably, Mitterrand was a French politician and the President of France from 1981 to 1995. He was the longest-serving President in the history of France. As First Secretary of the Socialist Party, he was the first left-wing politician to assume the presidency under the Fifth Republic. According to media reports, he died on January 8, 1996, in the French Capital, Paris, at the age of 79 from prostate cancer, a condition he and his doctors had concealed for most of his presidency.
60 per cent of US voters believe Biden's mental health decline: Poll
It is worth mentioning this was not the first time when the incumbent US President made a blunder while addressing the public. Ever since assuming office in 2020, President Biden made several gaffe which went viral on social media platforms.
Earlier last year, he claimed 100' people, instead of 1 million, died in the COVID-19 pandemic, which left behind "8 million people who were close to them. In June last year, he accidentally said that Russian President Vladimir Putin was clearly losing the war in "Iraq" instead of Ukraine. His remarks had come less than 24 hours after he said "China" instead of "India" while referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In a recent survey, some 59% of US voters believe that US President Joe Biden is getting increasingly less mentally sharp as he is set to run for reelection in November, Sputnik reported quoting Rasmussen. One-third of respondents, or 33%, disagreed with the majority about Biden’s mental health, but most suspect the mass media are covering up the president’s cognitive decline, Rasmussen Reports said in a press release accompanying the poll.
Also Read: Gaffe-prone Biden makes yet another blunder, says 'over 100' died in COVID-19 pandemic
