Biden introduces Zelenskiy as ‘President Putin’ during the NATO conference.
Biden erroneously referred to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as “President Putin,” escalating questions about his mental acuity that have threatened to derail his presidential campaign.
Biden made the error while accompanied by NATO leaders during a signing ceremony with Zelenskiy on the final day of the NATO summit in Washington. It came barely an hour before Biden’s rare press conference, which has been dubbed “make-or-break” for his campaign, as an increasing number of political supporters and funders have urged him to withdraw from the race.
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Biden concluded his opening remarks by handing over to Zelenskiy with the words: “Now I want to hand it over to the president of Ukraine, who has as much courage as he does determination.”
He responded: “Ladies and gentlemen, President Putin!” Several European politicians began clapping hesitantly. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni were taken aback when Biden addressed the Russian leader, while other European leaders applauded awkwardly.
Biden realized his error and corrected himself, saying, “President Putin! We are going to defeat President Putin. President Zelenskiy. I’m so concentrated on defeating Putin. We’ve got to be concerned about it. Anyway, Mr. President.
“I’m better,” Zelenskiy said Biden, shaking his hand.
“You are a hell of a lot better,” Biden said, finishing his remarks. The remark caused gasps in a press center, where hundreds of journalists were viewing the comments live on an internal television feed. A lot of people in the room shouted “Zelenskiy” to correct Biden’s error, and he returned to the podium.
Zelenskiy was scheduled to deliver a press conference one hour later, following the conclusion of the NATO summit. However, journalists who were waiting were informed at short notice that the event had been postponed, which meant he did not have to react to queries regarding Biden’s error.
The word of the error immediately spread to other press conferences with heads of state, reigniting doubts about Biden’s mental health that had hung over the conference since it began.
When challenged about President Biden’s mistake, Keir Starmer argued that the NATO summit had resulted in breakthroughs welcomed by President Zelenskiy and left NATO in a better position.
When asked if the US president was capable of serving another four years in office, he replied, “Look, I was with him last night.” We spent the better part of an hour together. We covered a lot of ground.
“We’ve gone through two days of this council and reached a pretty excellent conclusion. He led through everything, spoke at every session, brought people together, and we got a fantastic result, which I believe he deserves credit for.”
In a news conference, French President Emanuel Macron stated, “Slips of the tongue happen, it’s happened to me.”
Scholz was questioned in English about Biden’s error during a press conference a few minutes later. He sidestepped the subject, saying he hoped Biden would continue to strongly support Ukraine.
