US President Joe Biden’s slip of the tongue was removed from the official transcript of the Thursday presser, in which the president probably mixed up Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani and a former Pakistan Chief of Army Staff while speaking about US cooperation with NATO allies over Afghanistan hostilities.
"And General Austin (US Defence Secretary Lloyd J Austin) just met Kayani (Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani). He is the leader of Afghanistan in Kabul… I am just waiting for a briefing on that," he said yesterday.
The presser’s gaffe went viral as netizens predictably mocked the mix up.
I am Joe Biden and I forget the Name of Afghan president. pic.twitter.com/OVRLKeQ8eo
— Kochai Timuri - کوچی تیموری (@Kochi993) March 26, 2021
Biden is alleged to have questioned Ghani’s legitimacy, referring to him as “the 'leader,' quote,” while Ghani’s presidential rival claimed that it was he who won the elections concluded in February 2020.
Biden also noted that US troops would “not stay a long time” in the Middle Eastern nation but acknowledged that it would be “hard to meet the May 1 deadline.”
The US president, while covering issues including the border situation in the US, the COVID-19 pandemic response, foreign policy and gun control initiatives, has made other verbal mistakes, suggesting, for example, that he had been in the Senate "for 120 years."
