Joe Biden was caught making another public blunder when he accidentally mixed up China and Russia.
The US President was giving a speech at the Annual National Governors’ Association when he slipped up as he recalled an anecdote from his time as Vice President to Barack Obama.
Addressing the elected representatives in the room, Biden said that Obama had warned him of the need to get close to Xi because he would one day be in charge of Russia.
“He wanted me to get to know Xi Jinping,” the President recalled.
“It was clear he was going to be the head of Russia… uuuh China… and we were having problems with Russia at the time and other countries as well.”
The gaffe comes after Biden has made a number of similar errors, repeatedly confusing world leaders while giving speeches.
Joe Biden made the mix up in a speech this weekend
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Joe Biden’s latest gaffe comes after a string of other recent errors
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Biden’s mental fitness has been questioned following the release of a Department of Justice report which claimed that the president has “diminished faculties” and a “poor memory”.
The report, authored by Special Counsel Robert Hur, who spoke with the President regarding classified documents, described the 81-year-old as a “well-meaning, elderly man.”
In his Annual National Governors’ Association speech, Biden also repeated his debunked claim that he had travelled 17,000 miles with Xi Jinping.
He stated: “What he [Obama] said was get to know him [Jinping], he is going to be there.
“He [Obama] couldn’t because he was the President, so I travelled 17,000 miles with him throughout the country, in our country and in China as well.
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Joe Biden met with Xi Jinping when he was Vice President
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“We were in the Tibet plateau and he turned to me and said: Can you define America for me? And I looked at him and suggested that I can in one word: Possibilities…”
Biden has repeated his story about travelling with Xi on multiple occasions, despite the White House admitting the claim is “inaccurate”.
Saying that the 1,700 miles figure was untrue, a White House official said: “This was a reference to the total travel back and forth — both internally in the US and China, and as well as internationally — for meetings they held together.
“Some travel was in parallel, some was separately to joint destinations.”
Emily Foster is a globe-trotting journalist based in the UK. Her articles offer readers a global perspective on international events, exploring complex geopolitical issues and providing a nuanced view of the world’s most pressing challenges.
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