President Joe Biden appeared confused as he stood with world leaders on Thursday, performing his signature awkward handshake as he left the stage.
RNC Research highlighted the moments on
One man appears to switch places with another while posing for a photo op – while Biden appears to watch the incident in confusion.
“Such strength, such drive,” the report wrote sarcastically, referring to Biden’s seemingly weak handshake.
Footage of the president’s latest faux pas sparked mixed reactions.
President Joe Biden appeared confused as he stood with world leaders at the APEC summit and performed his trademark awkward handshake as he left the stage
One man appears to switch places with another while posing for a photo op – while Biden appears to watch the incident in confusion
“How long are they going to keep acting like this? With everything going on in the world, things are getting serious,” one user commented.
“My MIL acts like this every time we try to take a family photo…” joked another.
Others defended the president: “Actually, it looks like the other leaders were confused because they thought they were the ones in the wrong place.”
This came after Biden waved the white flag during his speech at the APEC summit on Thursday rather than bother with saying the challenging name of a corporate entity.
While Biden praised the innovations of U.S. companies, he chose to skip the name of a corporate entity rather than muck up its name in remarks about innovation and performance.
“IBM, Organon, Visa. “Look, they make our region more resilient and safer,” Biden said, listing the names of the companies.
“Here in this world-renowned innovation center are leading technology companies like Anthropic and — I’m going to mispronounce that.” “I’m not even going to try,” Biden said, pausing.
Footage of the president’s latest faux pas sparked mixed reactions
“I’m going to mispronounce,” Biden told the crowd during a speech at APEC. He said it was better to skip a company’s name in his speech than to mispronounce it
“It’s better not to try not to mispronounce it than to try to mispronounce it,” he remarked before continuing his remarks. “The point is that small and medium-sized business start-ups also receive a focus,” said Biden.
His remark drew hearty laughter from the crowd of dignitaries and officials from across the Asia-Pacific region.
Biden, who overcame a speech impediment as a child, had recently botched the name of the massive downtown San Francisco venue where he was speaking.
“Marcone Center is about the size of my state,” confusing the name Moscone Center. It is named after former San Francisco Mayor George Moscone, who was assassinated in 1978 along with San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk.
On Wednesday, Biden avoided another potentially challenging name when he didn’t try to name CBS White House correspondent Weijia Jiang.
Biden, who overcame a speech impediment as a child, even botched the name of the massive downtown San Francisco venue where he spoke.
“Marcone Center is about the size of my state,” confusing the name Moscone Center. It is named after former San Francisco Mayor George Moscone, who was assassinated in 1978 along with San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk.
This isn’t Biden’s first blunder of the month.
Just last week, Biden again referred to his Vice President Kamala Harris as “president” and later corrupted the pronunciation of her name.
The president’s blunders came as he welcomed the Stanley Cup champion Las Vegas Gold Knights to the White House on Monday, and are part of a string of blunders on his part when it comes to his vice president.
“President Harris is here to make sure we get it right,” Biden said as he opened the celebratory event.
Biden also shuffled into a six-foot-tall Brazilian flag in September and swayed it as he approached the podium.
The president gave a rambling speech about his “economic vision of rebuilding our economy from the center out and from the bottom up rather than the top down” as Lula looked on from his right flank.
Meanwhile, during Lula’s speech, Biden fiddled with his headset, which he used to listen to a translated version.
“Can you hear me, President Biden?” “This is a historic moment for Brazil and the United States,” Lula said at the beginning of his speech.
“President Biden, can you hear me?” Lula asked again, appearing to lose patience as Biden grunted in response. ‘You can?’ he asked, turning to Biden. ‘Yes, well.’
As Lula continued his speech, Biden continued to appear confused as he fiddled with the headset. At one point, Biden dropped his earpiece and raised his eyebrows in frustration.
International Labor Organization Director General Gilbert Houngbo took the podium after the two world leaders, and Biden bent to slowly pick up a folder from the floor.
At the end of his speech, Houngbo alternately shook hands with Biden and Lula – but Biden appeared to leave Lula hanging and awkwardly saluted the audience before shuffling off the stage.
He seemed torn between a thumbs up or a greeting and made a sloppy gesture that combined the two.
When Biden turned his back on the Brazilian president, Lula appeared annoyed and made a wiping gesture with his arm. They awkwardly moved away from opposite sides.