Biden verbal slips: US President Joe Biden, in another case of his verbal slip-ups, accidentally said on Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin was clearly losing the war in “Iraq” instead of Ukraine, less than 24 hours after he said “China” instead of “India” while referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

During an interaction with reporters at South Lawn, Biden was asked whether Putin was weakened by the recent development where his government faced a short-lived insurrection by private military company Wagner Group, led by Yevgeny Prigozhin.

“It’s hard to tell, but he’s clearly losing the war in Iraq [sic].  He’s losing the war at home.  And he has become a bit of a pariah around the world.  And it’s not just NATO; it’s not just the European Union.  It’s Japan.  It’s — it’s — you know, it’s 40 nations,” he said.

A day before, Biden was addressing a campaign reception in Maryland, where he made the same mistake. “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 [Ukraine] and get NATO to be completely united, I think they would have told you it’s not likely,” he said.

Biden mentioned China as his ‘new best friend’, while referring to PM Modi’s US visit

At the same event, the 80-year-old US President referred to his recent meeting with PM Modi as his ‘new best friend’ and mistakenly mentioned China instead of India.

“You probably saw my new best friend — (laughs) — the — the Prime Minister of a little country that’s now the largest in the world, China — I mean, excuse me, In- — India.  India is not looking for a permanent alliance, but they’re looking for some hedge against — in the region,” he said.

These verbal slip-ups are not unusual for Biden. Despite these verbal missteps, they have not had any significant impact on the Biden administration’s policy decisions or public perception. The President is known for making verbal gaffes, and his supporters argue that such missteps do not detract from his competence or effectiveness as Commander-in-Chief.

Former President George Bush’s ‘Freudian Slip’

Last year, former US president George W. Bush had made a ‘Freudian slip’ where he referred to the Russia-Ukraine war as the ‘Iraq war’. “The result is an absence of checks and balances in Russia, and the decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq. I mean of Ukraine,” he had said.

Russia had invaded Ukraine on February 2022 and several lives have been lost in the ensuing conflict between the two countries. After Russia’s invasion, the US has imposed numerous sanctions on Russian individuals and organisations and provided support to Ukraine for the war.

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