{"id":12637,"date":"2024-07-12T07:45:38","date_gmt":"2024-07-12T06:45:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/londonpost.news\/?p=12637"},"modified":"2025-10-18T08:35:37","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T07:35:37","slug":"biden-introduces-zelenskiy-as-president-putin-at-nato-summit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/en\/world-news\/biden-introduces-zelenskiy-as-president-putin-at-nato-summit\/2024\/07\/12\/admin1\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden introduces Zelenskiy as \u2018President Putin\u2019 at NATO summit"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li><strong>US president says \u2018Ladies and gentleman, President Putin\u2019, before realising mistake and correcting himself<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>WASHINGTON, July 12 &#8211; Joe Biden has accidentally introduced the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, as \u201cPresident Putin\u201d in a gaffe that will fuel further concerns about his mental acuity that have\u00a0threatened to scuttle his presidential campaign.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-iy9ec7\">Biden made the mistake while flanked by NATO leaders during a signing ceremony alongside Zelenskiy on the final day of the NATO summit in Washington. It came just an hour before a rare press conference by Biden that has been called \u201cmake-or-break\u201d for his campaign, as a growing number of political allies and donors have been calling for him to drop out of the race.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-iy9ec7\">Concluding his opening remarks, Biden handed over to Zelenskiy with the words: \u201cNow I want to hand it over to the president of Ukraine, who has as much courage as he has determination.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-iy9ec7\">He said: \u201cLadies and gentlemen, President Putin!\u201d<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 640px;\" class=\"wp-video\"><!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('video');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-12637-1\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video\/mp4\" src=\"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Joe_US.mp4?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Joe_US.mp4\">https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Joe_US.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n<p class=\"dcr-iy9ec7\">A number of European leaders began clapping hesitantly. German chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni turned their heads in surprise as Biden mentioned the Russian leader, while other European leaders broke into an awkward smattering of applause.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-iy9ec7\">Realising his mistake, Biden caught himself and said: \u201cPresident Putin! We\u2019re going to beat President Putin. President Zelenskiy. I\u2019m so focused on beating Putin. We\u2019ve got to worry about it. Anyway, Mr President.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-iy9ec7\">\u201cI\u2019m better,\u201d Zelenskiy said, shaking Biden\u2019s hand.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-iy9ec7\">\u201cYou are a hell of a lot better,\u201d Biden responded in concluding his remarks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-iy9ec7\">The remark elicited gasps in a press centre, where hundreds of journalists were watching the remarks live on an internal television feed. A number of people in the room shouted out \u201cZelenskiy\u201d to correct Biden\u2019s mistake, after which he returned to the podium.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-iy9ec7\">Zelenskiy had been due to give a press conference at the end of the Nato summit an hour later. But journalists who were waiting were told at short notice that the event was cancelled \u2013 meaning he didn\u2019t have to respond to questions about Biden\u2019s gaffe.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-iy9ec7\">The news about the mistake quickly filtered into other press conferences with heads of government, rehashing questions about Biden\u2019s mental state that have loomed over the conference since it began.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-iy9ec7\">Keir Starmer, asked about President Biden\u2019s gaffe, insisted that the Nato summit had made breakthroughs that were welcomed by President Zelenskiy and had left Nato in a stronger position.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-iy9ec7\">Pressed by reporters on whether the US president was capable of serving another four years in office, he said: \u201cLook, I was with him last night. We spent the best part of an hour together. We covered a lot of ground.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-iy9ec7\">\u201cWe\u2019ve been through two days of this council and come to a very good outcome. He\u2019s led through all, spoken at every session, pulled people together, and we got a good outcome and I think he should give credit for that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-iy9ec7\">French president Emanuel Macron in his press conference said: \u201cSlips of the tongue happen, it\u2019s happened to me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-iy9ec7\">Scholz was asked, in English, about Biden\u2019s gaffe in a press conference a few minutes later. He sidestepped the question, and said he hoped that Biden would continue to strongly support Ukraine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>US president says \u2018Ladies and gentleman, President Putin\u2019, before realising mistake and correcting himself WASHINGTON, July 12 &#8211; Joe Biden has accidentally introduced the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, as \u201cPresident Putin\u201d in a gaffe that will fuel further concerns about his mental acuity that have\u00a0threatened to scuttle his presidential campaign. Biden made the mistake while [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12639,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":""},"categories":[8273,9925],"tags":[3341,3709,7911,7914,8854,79,128,154],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/US_Joe.jpg","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12637"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12637"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12640,"href":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12637\/revisions\/12640"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}