Oh dear. It’s a day ending in ‘y’ which means Joe Biden has caused another diplomatic incident. As the gaffe-prone president battles to convince Democrats to stick with him for another four years, the aging octogenarian slipped up again when speaking today at the Nato 75th anniversary summit in Washington DC. This year’s jamboree is partly dedicated to the defence of Ukraine, with world leaders lining up to praise the country’s struggle against Moscow’s aggression.
So it was especially unfortunate then that, when introducing President Zelensky, Joe Biden accidentally referred to him as, er, President Putin. Yes, that’s right – when welcoming Ukraine’s head of state, the leader of the free world introduced him instead as Kyiv’s arch-enemy, to audible gasps from attendees in the room. Biden quickly apologised for the embarrassing flub, saying it happened because he was ‘so focused on beating’ the Kremlin strongman but the damage was done.
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