NEWS'Simply Unbelievable': President Joe Biden Improperly Addresses Volodymyr Zelenskyy as Vladimir During NATO Summit
Jul. 12 2023, Published 2:52 p.m. ET
President Joe Biden slipped up yet again!
On Wednesday, July 12, during the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the president improperly referred to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as Vladimir, potentially mistaking him for Vladimir Putin, who is the current president of Russia. (Russia and Ukraine are currently at war.)
"Vladimir and I ... I shouldn't be so familiar," Biden said before correcting himself.
"Mr. Zelensky and I," he later said. (According to Newsweek, "Volodymyr" and "Vladimir" are different versions of the same name.)
Piers Morgan pointed out Biden's error on Twitter, posting the video with an eyes covered emoji.
Meanwhile, others took to social media to call out the politician.
"This old man must just take a rest now," one person wrote, while another added, "Simply unbelievable."
Meanwhile, one other person stuck up for Biden, writing, "Same name, different spelling. Pay attention."
This is hardly the first time Biden has messed up during a speech.
A few weeks ago, Biden spoke too MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace on Thursday, June 29, but he mistook the Declaration of Independence for the Constitution while criticizing the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to end affirmative action.
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“Its value system is different, and its respect for our institutions is different,” Biden said of the court after its ruling. “And in that sense, it’s not as embracing of all, what I think the con — the Constitution says, ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident. All men and women are created equal, endowed by their creator.’ It’s the uniqueness of America, we’ve never fully lived up to it, but never walked away from it. And this court seems to say, ‘No, that’s not always the case.’ The idea that there’s no right of privacy in the Constitution, giving states power that we fought a war over in 1960 [sic]. You know, I just think it’s — this is not your father’s Republican Party.”
The quote Biden cited actually appears in the second paragraph of The Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
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At the time, people couldn't help but focus on the blunder.
One person wrote, "WHAT ON EARTH IS JOE BIDEN DOING? It's live TV!" while another added, "He was on a mission to get to the bathroom."
A third person added, "Biden has no idea what he’s doing, how is anyone else supposed to know?"
