President Joe Biden has again claimed he was speaking with a dead dignitary at the 2021 G7 Summit – marking the second time in a week the president has appeared to reference meeting a deceased leader.
The 81-year-old president, speaking in Las Vegas Monday, told an anecdote about attending the summit in England in June 2021, where he referenced speaking to French President Francois Mitterrand, who died in 1996, instead of current leader Emmanuel Macron.
On Wednesday, Biden told a similar anecdote about the summit at two fundraisers in New York, according to a pool report. He discussed, as he did in the Monday, telling of the anecdote to other leaders at the summit, that ‘America’s back’ and that the president of France – whom Biden did not name this time around – responded: ‘For how long?’
Biden said he’d ‘never thought of it this way,’ he then claims to have been addressed by German Chancellor Helmut Kohl regarding the nature of the January 6 insurrection.
Kohl died in 2017 and was not at the 2021 summit.
President Joe Biden twice described a meeting at the 2021 G7 Summit with ex-German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who died in 2017, the second time the president has appeared to reference meeting a deceased leader this week
‘Helmut Kohl of Germany looked at me and said, ‘What would you say Mr. President if you picked up the London Times tomorrow morning and learned there’s 1000 broken down the doors of the British parliament, killed some [inaudible] on the way in to deny the next prime minister to take office. And you think, what would we think?’ Biden claimed.
Biden did meet with the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, at the G7 Summit but Kohl died on June 16, 2017, and had not been chancellor since 1998.
At the other New York fundraiser, he recounted a similar meeting, did mention Macron and then told the same story about Kohl’s hypothetical.
Biden’s confusion is just the latest gaffe for the famously folksy president, who had a stutter as a child and has referred to himself as a ‘gaffe machine.’
As with Merkel, he knows Macron, elected in 2017 at the age of 39, well: Macron is the youngest president in French history and the youngest French head of state since Napoleon.
Biden also met Mitterrand, as a young senator. It’s unclear if there are any meetings between Biden and Kohl, who served as chancellor from 1982 to 1998.
Mitterrand took office in 1981, when the current French president was three years old.
Biden, as chair of the European Affairs Committee, met Mitterrand in January 1988 while discussing a Soviet nuclear weapons treaty.
![Biden, seen walking here with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the G7 Summit on June 11, 2021. In an anecdote he told to donors twice on Wednesday in New York, he said the chancellor at the time was Helmut Kohl](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02/08/06/81002363-13059655-image-m-49_1707373173605.jpg)
Biden, seen walking here with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the G7 Summit on June 11, 2021. In an anecdote he told to donors twice on Wednesday in New York, he said the chancellor at the time was Helmut Kohl
![Kohl died on June 16, 2017, and had not been chancellor since 1998](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02/08/06/81002359-13059655-image-a-47_1707373165107.jpg)
Kohl died on June 16, 2017, and had not been chancellor since 1998
![Earlier in the week, Biden appeared to confuse the current French president Emmanuel Macron with his predecessor Francois Mitterrand, who died in 1996](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02/08/06/80895663-13059655-Joe_Biden_appeared_to_confuse_the_current_French_president_Emman-a-50_1707373399247.jpg)
Earlier in the week, Biden appeared to confuse the current French president Emmanuel Macron with his predecessor Francois Mitterrand, who died in 1996
![While telling an anecdote from the G7 summit in June 2021, Biden confused French President Francois Mitterrand (pictured), who died in 1996 with the current French president](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02/08/06/80895653-13059655-While_telling_an_anecdote_from_the_G7_summit_in_June_2021_Biden_-a-51_1707373401836.jpg)
While telling an anecdote from the G7 summit in June 2021, Biden confused French President Francois Mitterrand (pictured), who died in 1996 with the current French president
Mitterrand was president until 1995, and died a year later, aged 79.
It the latest in a growing-list of mistakes by the president since he took office.
The 81-year-old has repeatedly said that his son Beau died in Iraq, instead of at Walter Reed, and in June 2023 muddled up the ongoing war in Ukraine for the Iraq War, which ended in 2011.
He declared that Russian Vladimir Putin was ‘clearly losing the war in Iraq.’
That same month, he closed out a speech on gun control with the bizarre proclamation: ‘God save the Queen, man.’
Queen Elizabeth II had died in September 2022, so some thought he meant Queen Camilla, but the relevance was unclear.
The following month, Biden claimed to have reached a medical milestone, declaring: ‘We ended cancer as we know it.’
And in December 2023, he bragged about infrastructure spending, saying it was at: ‘Over a billion, 300 million, trillion, 300 million dollars.’
Biden has also hit out at Donald Trump’s gaffes – noting that Trump references ‘starting World War Two’, which has already been and gone, and confusing Nikki Haley and Nancy Pelosi.
‘He’s a little confused these days,’ Biden said.
![Biden's confusion is just the latest gaffe for the famously folksy president. He has repeatedly said that his son Beau died in Iraq, instead of at Walter Reed](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02/06/02/80896081-13049431-image-a-5_1707185049053.jpg)
Biden’s confusion is just the latest gaffe for the famously folksy president. He has repeatedly said that his son Beau died in Iraq, instead of at Walter Reed
![Biden has previously said confused the war in Ukraine with the Iraq war and declared that Vladimir Putin was 'clearly losing the war in Iraq'.](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02/06/02/80896079-13049431-image-a-3_1707185048978.jpg)
Biden has previously said confused the war in Ukraine with the Iraq war and declared that Vladimir Putin was ‘clearly losing the war in Iraq’.
![Some 49 percent of Democrats admit Joe Biden is too old to be president in our poll of likely 2024 voters from last year. Only 28 percent believe he is just the right age](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02/08/06/72247859-13059655-Some_49_percent_of_Democrats_admit_Joe_Biden_is_too_old_to_be_pr-a-53_1707373420705.jpg)
Some 49 percent of Democrats admit Joe Biden is too old to be president in our poll of likely 2024 voters from last year. Only 28 percent believe he is just the right age
The White House on Tuesday refused to be drawn into questions about President Biden’s fitness for the job.
A reporter pointed out Biden’s Monday gaffe mixing up the French leaders during the White House daily briefing a day later when he asked Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre how the president would address some three-quarters of the population concerned about his physical and mental health.
‘I’m not even going to go down that rabbit hole with you, sir,’ was her brief response.
When the reporter objected that it wasn’t a rabbit hole, she expanded her answer, listing Biden’s busy recent itinerary.
‘You saw the president in Vegas, in California,’ she said. ‘You’ve seen the president in South Carolina. You saw him in Michigan. I’ll just leave it there.’
The episode only served to highlight Biden’s increasing age. At 81 he is already the oldest president in history, and he is running for another term that would keep him in office until the age of 86.
A DailyMail.com poll last year found that 70 percent of voters thought Biden was too old to be president. That included more than half of Democrats, showing the challenge he faces as he campaigns for a second term.