Biden mistakenly calls Zelenskiy ‘Putin’
Andrew Roth
Joe Biden accidentally introduced Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy as “President Putin” in a gaffe that will fuel further concerns about his mental acuity that have threatened to scuttle his presidential campaign.
Biden made the mistake during a signing ceremony alongside Zelenskiy on the final day of the Nato summit in Washington DC. It came just an hour before a rare press conference by Biden that has been called “make-or-break” for his campaign, as a growing number of political allies and donors have been calling for him to drop out of the race.
Concluding his opening remarks, Biden handed over to Zelenskyy with the words:
Now I want to hand it over to the president of Ukraine, who has as much courage as he has determination.
Biden said:
Ladies and gentlemen, President Putin!
Realising his mistake, Biden caught himself and said:
President Putin! We’re going to beat President Putin. President Zelenskiy. I’m so focused on beating Putin. We’ve got to worry about it. Anyway, Mr. President.
“I’m better,” Zelenskiy said, shaking Biden’s hand.
“You are a hell of a lot better,” Biden concluded his remarks.
The remark elicited gasps in the hall, where the two men were flanked by dozens of advisers, and in the press centre, where hundreds of journalists were watching the remarks live on an internal television feed.
Key events
What happened at the Nato summit today
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The US announced a new security package for Ukraine worth $225m, which includes a Patriot missile battery, additional ammunition for high-mobility artillery rocket systems and missiles. President Joe Biden told his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, “we will stay with you, period” ahead of a bilateral meeting on Thursday.
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Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged Nato allies to lift restrictions on its use of long-range weapons against targets in Russia. Zelenskiy said doing so would be a “gamechanger” in its war with Moscow, adding: “If we want to win, if we want to prevail, to save our country and to defend it, we need to lift all the limitations.”
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Hungary does not want, and will not support, Nato becoming an “anti-China” bloc, foreign minister Peter Szijjarto said. Speaking on the sidelines of a Nato summit, Szijjarto also said Ukraine’s admission to the alliance would weaken unity within the group.
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Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said that any possibility of a direct confrontation between Russia and Nato was “worrying”. He added: “Any steps that could lead to this outcome should be consciously avoided.”
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Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, will fly to Mar-a-Lago on Thursday to meet with Donald Trump, according to two sources with knowledge of the meeting. Orbán has enraged his Nato allies by meeting with Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping en route to the alliance’s summit in Washington DC. He has also met with Zelenskiy in Kyiv, and is said to be quietly negotiating his own ceasefire plan without consulting either the Biden administration or other EU countries.
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France, Germany, Italy and Poland signed a letter of intent to develop ground-launched cruise missiles with a range beyond 500km (310 miles), aiming to fill what they say is a gap in European arsenals exposed by Russia’s war in Ukraine. French defence minister Sébastien Lecornu said the new missile was meant to serve as a deterrent.
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Norway will donate 1bn Norwegian kroner ($92.69m) in support to Ukraine for its air defence, prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre said. The donation comes a day after Norway announced it would give six F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine to help it in defence efforts against Russian air attacks.
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Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said that France remained a key partner on the international stage as Emmanuel Macron struggles to build a coalition government after elections. “France will be on the international agenda a big partner, a strong partner of all of us, and especially a partner for Germany,” Scholz said at the Nato summit on Thursday.
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Romania, Bulgaria and Greece signed a deal to enable swift cross-border movement of troops and weapons to Nato’s eastern flank, Romania’s defence ministry said. The planned harmonised military mobility corridor between the three Nato and EU states was one of two such mobility corridors agreed on the sidelines of the Nato summit in Washington DC.
Dan Sabbagh
German chancellor Olaf Scholz was asked, in English, about Joe Biden’s gaffe in a press conference a few minutes later.
Scholz sidestepped the question, and said he hoped that Biden would continue to strongly support Ukraine.
Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelenskiy held a bilateral meeting earlier today amid the Nato summit in Washington, during with the US president announced a new $225m aid package for Ukraine.
Ahead of the meeting, Biden told Zelenskiy:
We will stay with you, period.
The new US security package includes a Patriot missile system to bolster Ukraine’s air defences against a deadly onslaught of Russian airstrikes, as well as Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), and more artillery rounds.
Zelenskiy called the announcement “strong news” but emphasised that Kyiv also needed US permission to fire the long-range missiles it has provided at targets deeper inside Russian territory.
Biden mistakenly calls Zelenskiy ‘Putin’
Andrew Roth
Joe Biden accidentally introduced Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy as “President Putin” in a gaffe that will fuel further concerns about his mental acuity that have threatened to scuttle his presidential campaign.
Biden made the mistake during a signing ceremony alongside Zelenskiy on the final day of the Nato summit in Washington DC. It came just an hour before a rare press conference by Biden that has been called “make-or-break” for his campaign, as a growing number of political allies and donors have been calling for him to drop out of the race.
Concluding his opening remarks, Biden handed over to Zelenskyy with the words:
Now I want to hand it over to the president of Ukraine, who has as much courage as he has determination.
Biden said:
Ladies and gentlemen, President Putin!
Realising his mistake, Biden caught himself and said:
President Putin! We’re going to beat President Putin. President Zelenskiy. I’m so focused on beating Putin. We’ve got to worry about it. Anyway, Mr. President.
“I’m better,” Zelenskiy said, shaking Biden’s hand.
“You are a hell of a lot better,” Biden concluded his remarks.
The remark elicited gasps in the hall, where the two men were flanked by dozens of advisers, and in the press centre, where hundreds of journalists were watching the remarks live on an internal television feed.
Of course this isn’t the first time Joe Biden has mixed up the names of leaders. The US president has a long history of verbal gaffes.
In February during a Las Vegas rally, Biden mixed up the names of the French leaders, Emmanuel Macron, with François Mitterrand. Later that same week, Biden mixed up the former German chancellors Helmut Kohl with Angela Merkel.
“I am a gaffe machine,” Biden admitted in December 2018 when asked about potential liabilities of his election campaign. Here’s a list of previous gaffes that Biden has made.
Joe Biden, speaking to reporters at the Nato summit just now, mistakenly referred to Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, as “President Putin”.
Biden quickly realised his mistake and corrected himself. Zelenskiy joked:
I’m better.
Biden just introduced President Zelenskyy as “President Putin,” but immediately caught himself
“I’m better,” Zelenskyy joked in response pic.twitter.com/8MgZHj2cf1
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 11, 2024
Earlier today, the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, was asked about his meeting with Joe Biden at the White House.
Biden was “on good form” and went through serious issues at pace during their first bilateral talks, Starmer answered.
The British prime minister said his personal view, having spent almost an hour in private talks with Biden and attended a dinner for Nato leaders at the White House, was that the US president was mentally agile.
Asked in a round of broadcast interviews whether criticism of Biden was misguided, the prime minister said:
Yes … my own personal view is he was on good form. I was very keen obviously to discuss Ukraine, but there were many other issues that we got through.
Downing Street said Starmer had not raised the issue of Biden’s health or his future plans in their meeting, but reporters asked him about media speculation that Biden could have early dementia symptoms. Starmer said:
No, we had a really good bilateral yesterday. We were billed for 45 minutes, we went on for the best part of an hour. We went through a huge number of issues at pace, he was actually on really good form.
Joe Biden did not hear any concerns from world leaders during the Nato summit regarding his health or re-election campaign challenges, the White House said.
The White House’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said leaders instead offered “a drumbeat of praise for the United States, but also for President Biden personally for what he’s done to strengthen Nato”, Associated Press reported.
Biden was praised not just for his time as president but for his decades in politics, Sullivan said.
Sullivan, who helped prepare Biden ahead of the disastrous debate performance, said he did not “have concerns” about the president’s health, adding:
He said he had a bad night.
Biden to speak at Nato summit in high-stakes press conference
Hello and welcome to our coverage of the Nato summit in Washington DC, where all eyes will be on Joe Biden this evening as he steps up to the lectern and answers questions from journalists in a critical test after his disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump a fortnight ago.
Biden is scheduled to begin speaking at 6.30pm ET to close out the three-day Nato summit in his first solo news conference in eight months, amid growing calls for him to step aside his Democratic party’s presumptive nominee.
The US president’s performance tonight will be closely watched by his aides and advisers, who have reportedly been discussing how to persuade him to leave the presidential race, as well as the Trump campaign who reportedly want him to stay.
We’ll stream Biden’s press conference here and bring you more news coming out of the Nato summit.
