President Biden this week mistakenly referred to Ukraine as Iraq on two occasions, mixing up the names of recent areas of conflict. <\/p>\n
Biden was asked Wednesday to what extent Russian President Vladimir Putin has been weakened by the aborted rebellion in Russia. In his response, he switched out Ukraine for the war that started with a U.S.-led coalition invasion into Iraq and ended in 2011. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to tell, but he is clearly losing the war in Iraq, he\u2019s losing the war at home and he has become a bit of a pariah around the world,\u201d the president said at the White House. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not just NATO, it\u2019s not just the European Union, it\u2019s Japan,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
The White House did not respond to a request for comments on the word swap. <\/p>\n
The president is known to make gaffes in off-the-cuff remarks, including in response to questions from reporters. He also has in the past slipped up on words before correcting himself.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Biden, 80, made the same mistake during a campaign reception in Maryland on Tuesday night, referring to Ukraine as Iraq.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
\u201cIf anybody told you \u2014 and my staff wasn\u2019t so sure, either \u2014 that we\u2019d be able to bring all of Europe together in the onslaught on Iraq and get NATO to be completely united, I think they would have told you it\u2019s not likely.\u00a0The one thing Putin counted on was being able to split NATO,\u201d Biden said. <\/p>\n
He often speaks much more candidly at such events and tends to make news with his unscripted remarks, such as when he called Chinese President Xi Jinping a dictator last week.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
On Tuesday night in Maryland, Biden also briefly flubbed the homeland of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who visited the White House last week. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou probably saw my new best friend, the prime minister of a little country that\u2019s now the largest in the world, China \u2014 I mean, excuse me, India,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
The president\u2019s comments on Putin come after the mercenary Wagner Group and its founder Yevgeny Prigozhi led a rebellion over the weekend that ended through a negotiated deal between Prigozhi and Putin. The Wagner chief has since fled to Belarus. <\/p>\n
Putin has publicly been outraged over the rebellion and it\u2019s led to\u00a0questions over what the negotiated deal means\u00a0for the future of the war in Russia.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Updated at 11:59 a.m. <\/p>\n
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Biden refers to Ukraine as Iraq when asked about Putin - The Hill<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" President Biden this week mistakenly referred to Ukraine as Iraq on two occasions, mixing up the names of recent areas of conflict. Biden was asked Wednesday to what extent Russian President Vladimir Putin has been weakened by the aborted rebellion in Russia. Continue reading