Joe Biden Keeps Confusing Ukraine and Iraq

(Bloomberg) -- President Joe Biden slipped up twice in the last 24 hours by confusing the US war in Iraq with the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

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Speaking to reporters Wednesday on the South Lawn of the White House, Biden said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had been weakened by a shocking mutiny by a mercenary group that’s played a critical role in his war with Ukraine.

“He is clearly losing the war in Iraq,” Biden said of Putin, evidently meaning to refer to Ukraine. “He’s losing the war at home, and he has become a bit of a pariah around the world.”

Earlier: Biden Says Putin Weakened Following Wagner Group Mutiny

Biden made a similar mistake while speaking to donors Tuesday evening at a campaign fundraiser in Chevy Chase, Maryland, about his efforts to galvanize US allies in support of Kyiv.

“If anybody told you — and my staff wasn’t so sure, either — that we’d be able to bring all of Europe together in the onslaught on Iraq and get NATO to be completely united, I think they would have told you it’s not likely,” the president said, again meaning to say Ukraine.

He also spoke about his “new best friend” being the “prime minister of a little country that’s now the largest in the world, China,” before correcting himself that he meant to say India.

Back in November, Biden also mixed up Iraq and Ukraine during a speech in Florida while defending his policies from accusations they have fueled inflation.

“Inflation is a worldwide problem right now because of a war in Iraq and the impact on oil, and what Russia is doing,” the president said.

He quickly caught the mistake. “I mean, excuse me, the war in Ukraine,” he said.

Biden explained at the time he thought of Iraq because “that’s where my son died,” misstating the place where his son Beau passed away. Beau Biden served as a military lawyer in Iraq. He returned to the US in 2009 and died of brain cancer in 2015. The president has said he believes his son’s cancer was the result of possible exposure to burn pits while in Iraq.

Biden also noticed his error and corrected himself, saying “because he died.”

Biden, 80, is the oldest president in US history and is facing voter doubts about whether he should serve four more years in the White House. Roughly two thirds of Americans, including 48% of self-described Democrats, said Biden is too old for another term, according to a March Yahoo/YouGov poll. Biden has a history of making verbal gaffes during his decades-long career in Washington.

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