Biden confuses Macron with dead French president Mitterrand in campaign speech

President Joe Biden appeared to confuse French President Emmanuel Macron with Francois Mitterrand, the former president of France who died in 1996, during a campaign speech on Sunday.

The mix-up occurred during a campaign event in Las Vegas, where Mr Biden told an anecdote about a meeting with G7 leaders back in June 2021.

The 81-year-old president recounted how he told the meeting in Cornwall that “America is back”, which prompted a response from “Mitterrand from Germany”, before correcting it to “from France”.

“Mitterrand from Germany — I mean, from France — looked at me and said, ‘You know, what… why … how long you back for?” Mr Biden said.

Headded that the conversation then turned to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, with then-chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, comparing it to the hypothetical storming of Parliament in Britain.

“I never thought about it from that perspective. What would we say if that happened in another democracy around the world,” he recounted.

Mr Biden’s gaffe was corrected on the official White House record, which published his remarks with the name “Mitterrand” crossed out and replaced with “Macron”.

President Joe Biden on Sunday appeared to confuse French president Emmanuel Macron with Francois Mitterrand

“And Mitterrand [Macron], from Germany — I mean, from France looked at me and said — said, ‘You know, what — why — how long you back for?” the official transcript of the speech read.

Mr Biden met Mr Mitterrand in January 1988 during a meeting of the European Affairs Committee, seven years after he became the French president in 1981.

Mr Mitterrand was president until 1995, and died a year later, aged 79.

Mr Biden’s gaffe marks the latest in a growing list during the president’s