President Joe Biden bumbled through his first G7 Summit this weekend, leaving a long trail of gaffes in his wake as leaders from the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Japan, India, South Korea, and South Africa looked on.
First Lady Jill Biden previously claimed the gaffe-prone Democrat president was “well prepared” for the foreign policy meetings and his rendezvous with Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Her confidence in Biden’s “weeks” of studying wavered, however, as she was forced to retrieve her husband when he appeared to wander off during the summit.
Joe Biden seems to get lost at the G7 summit in England, Jill comes to the rescue @JoeBiden @G7 @FLOTUS @USAmbUK pic.twitter.com/GFxGouRCoA
— The Jewish Voice (@TJVNEWS) June 11, 2021
Later in the summit, Biden tried to make U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson reintroduce the president of South Africa to the other leaders even though the British conservative had already named him in the welcome message.
“Welcome, those who have just joined us, we have some pretty spectacular weather. We have Prime Minister Modi [of India], President Ramaphosa [of South Africa], President Moon [of South Korea] in just a minute,” Johnson said.
“And the president of South Africa,” Biden interrupted.
Johnson quickly reminded Biden that he had already said Ramaphosa’s name, but the others seated at the table burst into laughter at Biden’s gaffe.
Boris Johnson insists to Joe Biden that he already introduced the president of South Africa to a G7 meeting.
Read the latest from the G7 here: https://t.co/LLt2KjJhOE pic.twitter.com/mjwKvbvDo6
— Sky News (@SkyNews) June 13, 2021
During his press conference on Sunday, Biden struggled in his speech and repeatedly confused Syria with Libya.
“We can work together with Russia, for example, in Libya. We should be opening up the passage to be able to go through, provide food assistance, and economic — I mean, vital assistance to a population that’s in real trouble,” Biden said, continuing to mix up the countries for the rest of his speech.
Aides in the Biden administration later came to the president’s defense and said he meant to say Syria.
WATCH: Joe Biden confuses Syria with Libya THREE TIMES. pic.twitter.com/8iewTindfr
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 13, 2021
The White House was also forced to issue a correction after Biden claimed that “a lot of people may not know what COVID is.”
“That is a system whereby they’re going to provide funding for states to get access to vaccines,” the president originally said. In the transcribed remarks of Biden’s speech, however, the president’s team added “COVAX” in parentheses after any wrong mention of COVID.
“And we — I committed that we would provide a half a billion — a half a billion beyond the 80 million we’ve already done — half a billion doses of Pfizer vaccine, which we contracted to pay for, in addition to money we put into the COVID [COVAX] project, which is that COVID [COVAX] is — and I know you all know, but a lot of people may not know what COVID [COVAX] is — that is a system whereby they’re going to provide funding for states to be able to get access to vaccines on their own, as well.”
