Biden confuses Macron with man who's been dead for nearly 30 years in latest gaffe

Biden confuses Macron with man who's been dead for nearly 30 years in latest gaffe

WATCH: Joe Biden says he recently met with "Mitterand from Germany"

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George Bunn

By George Bunn


Published: 06/02/2024

- 15:05

Updated: 07/02/2024

- 17:00

The 81-year-old President made the comment in Las Vegas ahead of Tuesday’s Nevada primary

President Biden made a confusing remark mixing up French President Emmanuel Macron with a man who has been dead for three decades.

The President was speaking at an audience of hospitality workers in Las Vegas ahead of Tuesday’s Nevada Democratic primary.


In a speech, the 81-year-old appeared to mix up President Emmanuel Macron with Francois Mitterrand, the former French president who died in 1996.

He also appeared to think the President was from Germany, before quickly correcting himself.

\u200bPresident Biden and President Macron

President Biden confused President Macron

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In an anecdote about the Cornwall G7 summit he attended in June 2021, he said: "Mitterrand from Germany, I mean, from France, looked at me and said, ‘You know, what ... why … how long you back for?

"And I looked at him and...the Chancellor of Germany said: 'What would you say, Mr President, if you picked up the paper tomorrow in the London Times, and the 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?"

It is believed that this is a response to the January 6 attack on the Capitol in Washington DC.

Mitterrand became French president in 1981 and remained in office until 1995. He died a year later, aged 79.

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\u200bFran\u00e7ois Mitterrand died in 1996

François Mitterrand died in 1996

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It is not the first gaffe by the President, who previously jokingly referred to himself as a "gaffe machine."

The same month Mr Biden confused the war in Ukraine for the Iraq War, which ended in 2011, saying that Russia’s Vladimir Putin was "clearly losing the war in Iraq." He also mixed up Britney Spears and Taylor Swift and bumbled through a speech at a brewery in Wisconsin.

However, Biden's most likely opponent, former President Donald Trump has also made gaffes including mistaking presidential candidate Nikki Haley for Nancy Pelosi, the former House of Representatives speaker, while discussing the January 6 attack.

Posting in social media, President Biden said: "I don't agree with Nikki Haley on everything, but we agree on this much: She is not Nancy Pelosi."

In 2020, Biden narrowly beat his Republican rival Donald Trump in Nevada by 33,596 votes - less than three per cent.

Opinion polls show a rematch between the two men this year, which seems likely, would be close.

According to state figures, Nevada has about 705,000 registered Democrats, 646,000 registered Republicans and nearly 768,000 who are "nonpartisan."

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