Joe Biden mixed up Gaza and Ukraine twice in an official address today in yet another mix-up for the 81-year-old president.
In a joint address with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Biden appeared to confuse the two battlegrounds as he discussed US aid to Gaza.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Biden said: “Today, I also – we're going to discuss the Middle East and yesterday’s tragic and alarming event in north Gaza, trying to get humanitarian[s] in there – and the loss of life is heartbreaking.
“People are so desperate that innocent people got caught in a terrible war to feed their families, and you saw the response when they tried to get aid.
Biden appeared to confuse the two battlegrounds as he discussed US aid to Gaza
Reuters
“We need to do more. And the United States will do more in the coming days.”
But the president sounded unsure of just where American aid would be going, and said: “We're going to join with our friends in Jordan and others in providing air drops of additional food and supplies into Ukraine...
Biden said the US would “seek to continue to open up other avenues in the Ukraine, including the possibility of a marine corridor, deliver large amounts of humanitarian assistance in addition to expanding deliveries by land”.
The Potus eventually corrected himself, saying the US would “insist that Israel facilitate more trucks and more routes to get more and more people the help they need. No excuses. The truth is, aid flowing to Gaza is nowhere nearly enough.”
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Biden's gaffe came in a joint address with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni
Reuters
The gaffe follows intense speculation about the president’s mental stability – this week, Erik Prince, former Navy Seal, founder of private military company Blackwater and head of cyber-security company Unplugged – said Biden was “clearly mentally unfit” ahead of November’s presidential election.
It’s not the first time Biden has muddled up his names; the president mixed up China and Russia in a speech last month, and has accidentally referred to both French president Emmanuel Macron and former German Chancellor Angela Merkel by their – dead – predecessors’ names before.