President Joe Biden has once again mixed up the names of foreign political leaders, this time trying to emphasise his mental fitness, New York Post reports.
The US president delivered a brief address to the nation from the White House on Thursday night, where he answered a barrage of questions from reporters about his age and memory, prompted by a report from special counsel Robert Hur about Biden’s handling of classified documents.
Shortly after Biden said his memory was “fine,” he went on to refer to Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi as “the president of Mexico.” Biden said:
“As you know, initially, the president of Mexico Sisi [sic] did not want to open up the gate to allow humanitarian material to get in [to Gaza]. I talked to him. I convinced him to open the gate.”
The irony that this mix-up occurred right after Biden defended his memory struck many social media users. America First Policy Institute communications officer Marc Lotter wrote:
“He got the president of Mexico to open the gate for refugees from Gaza? Dear God. Whoever thought this was a good idea should be fired.”
New Yorker staff writer Susan Glasser exclaimed:
“Yeesh. President of Mexico Sisi. Bad for Biden in an appearance meant to dispel concerns about his age. What a year this day has been.”
New York Post columnist John Podhertz joked:
“So Sisi is the president of Mexico.”
North Carolina Rep. Dan Bishop summarised:
“If this speech was meant to assuage voters’ concerns about his age and mental state, it failed miserably. It was hard to watch.”
Washington Free Beacon investigative reporter Chuck Ross said in response to New York magazine’s Jonathan Chait:
“Yeah, he really nailed the bit when he called el-Sisi the president of Mexico. That is a pretty effective performance by Biden.”
RealClearPolitics correspondent Susan Crabtree explained:
“This is the danger of a live press conference denying problems with mental acuity. Pres. Biden just referred to the Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi as the president of Mexico.”
Conservative commentator Viva Frei wrote on X:
“It seems POTUS [President of the US] thinks he’s been negotiating with the President of Mexico to allow aid in to Gaza. What a way to show Putin and the world that he is not a demented and incompetent old man.”
Outkick founder Clay Travis declared:
“Disaster presser for Joe Biden just now. He said his memory is fine then confused the leaders of Mexico and Egypt. He’s lost it. This is hard to watch. Legit 25th amendment time. Not sure he can make it 11 more months to finish his term.”
When reached for a comment, White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates referred Fox News Digital to a post from The Atlantic staff writer Yair Rosenberg. Rosenberg wrote, along with a video of House Speaker Mike Johnson mixing up Israel and Iran on Sunday:
“Biden has gaffed names his entire career. In 2008, he introduced his running mate as the next president of the United States, Barack America. He was clearly talking about Egypt, named Sisi, and laid out his policy and the broader issues in detail. Twitter just isn’t interested.”
The address came hours after special counsel Robert Hur released his report recommending against criminal charges against the president for mishandling classified documents. Those were classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan, as well as other records related to national security and foreign policy, which Hur said involved “classified intelligence sources and methods.”
Hur, however, described Biden as a “responsive, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” Throughout the more than 300-page report, Hur said it “would be difficult to convince a jury that they should find him guilty” of a serious crime “that requires a deliberate mental state” and said Biden would be “well into his eighties” by then.
The embarrassment was the third time this week that Biden has publicly mixed up the names of world leaders. On Sunday, he claimed to have met Francois Mitterrand, the French president who died in 1996, at his first Group of Seven meeting in 2021. On Wednesday, Biden recalled that he spoke with the late German Chancellor Helmut Kohl at the same G7 meeting, although Kohl died in 2017.
