US President Joe Biden has mistakenly referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as “President Putin” ahead of a first solo formal press conference in nearly eight months.
The mistake is the latest gaffe for a president who’s sought to project strength and lucidity following a disastrous debate performance two weeks ago.
Biden, who was joined on stage by 32 allies and foreign leaders to announce their support for the newly-announced “Ukraine Compact” was inviting Zelensky to speak when he made the verbal misstep.
LIVESTREAM: You can watch that press conference from 9am AEDT at the top of this page
“I want to hand it over to the president of Ukraine, who has as much courage as he has determination—please welcome President Putin,” Biden said.
Biden is scheduled to field questions with reporters later this evening, another make or break moment for the president on the world stage amidst growing calls from political allies for him to step aside from his 2024 campaign.
Biden’s high-stakes press appearance scheduled later this morning is his first formal solo news conference since November 2023 and is another make or break moment on the world stage amidst growing calls from political allies for him to step aside from his 2024 campaign.
The president’s last similar outing came nearly eight months ago when he took questions from reporters after his summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in California.
READ MORE: What happens if Joe Biden drops out of his re-election race?
At that news conference, Biden called on reporters from four organisations, one of whom asked two questions.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre jumped in to end the news conference after the fourth reporter, though Biden proceeded to answer an additional nine questions.
Biden’s most recent joint news conference was during the G7 summit last month.
Biden says he’s 100 per cent in, even if some aides have private doubts
While Biden has expressed confidence in his chances, his campaign today acknowledged they are behind, and a growing number of the president’s aides in the White House and the campaign privately harbour doubts that the president can turn it around.
But they’re taking their cues from Biden, expressing that he is in the race 100 per cent — unless and until he isn’t, and there appeared to be no organised internal effort to convince the president to step aside.
His allies were well aware heading into the week there would be more calls for him to step down, and they were prepared for it. It really is not clear how many lawmakers (or movie stars) it would take for Biden to reconsider his decision or if that number even exists.
With AP, CNN
links to content on ABC
9News
