Biden Mixes Up Macron with Late French President

In a speech that gained viral attention on video, U.S. President Joe Biden mistakenly referred to French President Emmanuel Macron as Francois Mitterrand, a former French leader who passed away in 1996. This incident occurred during a campaign event in Las Vegas on Sunday.

The 81-year-old U.S. President was recalling Macron’s response to a speech at a G7 meeting in 2020, but he not only misidentified Macron but also incorrectly mentioned the country Macron represents.

Biden said, “And Mitterrand — Macron, from Germany — I mean, from France looked at me and said, said ‘You know, what — why — how long you back for?'” as per the White House transcript.

The mix-up, involving Biden confusing Macron with Mitterrand, who served as French President from 1981 to 1995, has been widely viewed and shared on X, previously known as Twitter.

This is not the first time Biden has made such public errors. In September 2022, he mistakenly called out for deceased Indiana representative Jackie Walorski at a conference. In another incident in April of the previous year, a White House transcript had to correct Biden when he mixed up New Zealand’s All Blacks rugby team with the Black and Tans, a controversial British military force from the Irish War of Independence. The transcript from a speech in Ireland corrected “Black and Tans” to “All Blacks.”

Donald Trump, Biden’s predecessor and potential opponent in the upcoming presidential election, also recently made a similar error. Trump mistakenly claimed that Nikki Haley was responsible for security during the Capitol attack on January 6, 2021. This led to Haley questioning his mental fitness in a campaign speech.

In response to Trump’s mistake, Biden made a light-hearted comment, posting on X, “I don’t agree with Nikki Haley on everything, but we agree on this much: She is not Nancy Pelosi.”