Joe Biden mistakenly refers to Kamala Harris as ‘president,’ sparking conservative conspiracy theories

Biden (Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)
Biden (Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Joe Biden accidentally referred to Kamala Harris as "President Harris" during a press conference, which conservative conspiracy theorists jumped on, alleging the Democrats were planning on ousting Mr Biden and replacing him with Ms Harris.

Mr Biden was announcing that the administration had facilitated more than 100 million Covid vaccination doses when he made the flub.

“Now when President Harris and I took a virtual tour of a vaccination centre in Arizona not long ago, one of the nurses on that, on that tour injecting people, giving vaccinations, said that each shot was like administering a dose of hope," he said.

Mr Biden has made the slip in the past, referring to her as "president-elect" in December while discussing their own vaccinations.

During the 2020 election, Mr Trump frequently alleged that the Democrats were planning to use the 25th Amendment to replace Mr Biden with Ms Harris. He claimed that Mr Biden was suffering from mental decline and that the Democrats only used him as a means to win the election.

On Twitter, Brietbart News, long a hub of alt-right information, shared a video of the verbal mixup with the line “Why did Joe Biden just call Kamala “President Harris?”

Read more

Mr Biden is well known for mixing-up his words, suggesting he was not alluding to a secret Democratic plot but rather just made a mistake.

The president has a history of trailing off, mixing his words, and seemingly forgetting names.

During his presidential run, Mr Biden explained his verbal confusion away as a result of a stutter he has had for his entire life.

Mr Biden also referred to one of his presidential primary challengers, Senator Corey Booker, as president in a 2019 primary debate.

"The fact is that the bills that the president, excuse me, the future president, that the senator is talking about, are bills that were passed years ago and they were passed overwhelmingly," Mr Biden said at the time.

While Mr Biden's words are not likely indicative of a Democratic plot to replace him, though many political commentators on both sides of the political aisle have questioned whether or not he will run for a second term.

If he does not run for a second term, it is very likely Ms Harris will run to replace him.