Moment Biden’s team reacts to president calling Kamala Harris ‘vice president Trump’

Revealing footage has captured the moment members of Joe Biden’s cabinet reacted to his latest gaffe during hishigh-stakes press conference on Thursday night.

During what was tipped to be a critical briefing – as he seeks to win over growing skepticism about his competence to serve – the 81-year-old president mistakenly referred to his deputy Kamala Harris as “Vice President Trump”.

“Look, I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump, to be vice president, if I think she’s not qualified to be president,” Biden said, without correcting himself.

Biden’s Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan were sat in the audience during the stunning moment and their expressions were picked up on the C-SPAN cameras.

The top officials appeared crestfallen and dismayed by the gaffe, seemingly trying not to react too significantly – closing their eyes and looking at the floor in silent dejection.

Sullivan is seen in the footage raising his hand to his mouth, running his fingers over his lips in anxious embarrassment, his expression wide-eyed and glum.

A clip of the moment went viral on social media.

Biden had called the “big boy press conference” on the sidelines of a major Nato summit in Washington DC as part of his ongoing effort to convince the American electorate, his fellow Democrats and the media that he remains the right man to take on Donald Trump in the 2024 race, in light of his disastrous debate performance last month.

In the briefing, the president answered 19 queries from 10 reporters, speaking for just under an hour, but his latest blunder inevitably undermined his best efforts to set the record straight.

It came just hours after another embarrassing senior