Biden confuses Zelensky, Putin in embarrassing moment

As all eyes are on the US president awaiting his next gaffe, Joe Biden confused Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at the NATO summit.

Former Victorian Liberal Party president Michael Kroger has predicted the end of Joe Biden’s presidency as calls continue for the US president to step down. The announcement comes as actor and director George Clooney is the latest to call on Biden to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race. “The fact is… this guy is not running properly, he’s going to step down, he’s not going to be the Democratic Party nominee,” Mr Kroger said.

Biden was speaking at a press conference at the NATO summit in Washington DC on Thursday evening when the gaffe occurred.

The world has been waiting with bated breath for the moment when the 81-year-old might make another mistake, amid widespread speculation about his ability to remain the Democratic candidate in the 2024 US election.

US President Joe Biden has once again embarrassed himself in public by confusing the Ukrainian president with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Photo: Supplied

As Biden prepared to introduce Volodymyr Zelensky to speak at the summit, he made a mortifying mistake.

“And now I want to hand over to the President of Ukraine, who has both courage and determination – ladies and gentlemen, Mr Putin,” he said.

Realizing his mistake as he was about to walk away, Biden quickly turned back to the microphone to clarify.

“President Putin? He’s going to beat President Putin,” he said.

“President Zelensky. I am so focused on beating Putin, we have to worry about that.”

Former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney has spoken to leading Democrats who said they were “stunned” by US President Joe Biden’s debate performance. The 81-year-old will hold a rare solo news conference later in the morning to try to dampen suggestions he is unfit for office after a tumultuous few weeks. “The only way you can be stunned is to just look at the leftists who refused to cover this story,” Mr Mulvaney said.

As he approached to shake Biden’s hand before taking the microphone, Zelensky said, “I’m better,” prompting some laughter at the conference.

“You’re much better,” Biden replied before handing the floor over to the Ukrainian president.

A confusion of names is not uncommon among politicians, but confusing Zelensky with Putin, after Russia declared war on Ukraine in 2022, is a catastrophic mistake.

Reacting to the incident moments after it happened, Sky News Australia presenter Peter Stefanovic said the White House “just covered its eyes”.

Sky News presenter Liz Storer has responded to White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre’s “major backtracking” on US President Joe Biden’s health during a press briefing. The move comes as Ms Jean-Pierre admitted on Tuesday that she gave false information about Biden seeing a neurologist. Ms Jean-Pierre’s clarification comes just a day after reporters questioned her over whether she had provided misleading information about whether Biden had been medically assessed.

The US Report host James Morrow told Stefanovic that Biden was “finished” after the latest mistake.

“It’s quite bad for a number of reasons. It clarifies what we’ve already seen in the debate,” he said.

“This is the kind of moment that will cause a lot of people in the Democratic Party to say, ‘You know what, this is the end.'”

“This is the moment when we know… it clarifies what has been building for weeks, months and years.”

Sky News presenter James Morrow said Joe Biden’s latest gaffe “clarifies what we’ve already seen” at the debate: “this is the end” for the US president. US President Joe Biden made another gaffe at the final event of the NATO summit, accidentally calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky Vladimir Putin. “It’s very hard to see how Joe Biden can then, within a matter of hours, go to his press conference and say he’s still president,” Mr Morrow said.

Biden’s gaffe comes two weeks after his presidential debate with Donald Trump, which sparked deep concern among fellow Democrats about the octogenarian’s ability to continue running for a second term.

The 81-year-old spoke in a hoarse voice, seemed lost at times and stumbled through his incoherent answers during the disastrous night in Atlanta.

He later admitted to “making a mistake” that night and also admitted to nearly falling asleep on stage.

The president held a meeting with top Democrats last week to assure them that he was still fit to continue his presidential campaign.

One of the points raised at the meeting, however, raised fresh concerns when he reportedly stated his desire to stop having commitments after 8pm so he could get more sleep.

Biden said he intends to stay in the race, throwing down the gauntlet to Trump and his fellow Democrats to challenge him, in a letter sent to members of his party on Monday.