'Sleepy Joe': Gaffes that 'sandbagged' Biden out of presidential race

For millions of Americans, President Joe Biden’s sudden announcement of ending his reelection bid brought a sense of relief, not shock.

Over the few months, even the most die-hard Democrats were left squirming in embarrassment as Biden stumbled—sometimes literally—from one mishap to another, raising questions over his mental equity, failing health, and, most importantly, his ability to do his job as president.

As the spotlight shifts from the 81-year-old leader to Kamala Harris, his potential successor as the Democratic nominee to face Republican Donald Trump, here’s a look back at some of his most viral slips and gaffes.

Apparently, his gaffes aren't new, he's been making them for years. But as the election campaign heated up, he started making more of them.

As the White House grew tired of correcting his remarks and picking up after the president, he and his fellow Democrats seemed to understand that each time their candidate spoke undermined their chance of winning in November.

Confusing Zelenskyy with Putin, Macron with Mitterrand

Biden has a long track record of confusing world leaders with one another, with some instances having the potential to cause serious diplomatic problems.

Just a few weeks ago, at the NATO summit in Washington, Biden mistakenly referred to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as “President Putin,” the Russian leader whose country has been in war with Ukraine for over two years.

"And now I want to hand it over to the president of Ukraine, who has as much courage as he has determination. Ladies and gentlemen, President Putin," Biden said, referring to Zelenskyy.

A couple of seconds later, he corrected himself, adding, “You're going to beat President Putin, President Zelenskyy. I am so focused on beating Putin."

At a February campaign event in Las Vegas, Biden mistakenly referred to Emmanual Macron as Francois Mitterrand, who was France's president between 1981 and 1995 and passed away in 1996.

“And Mitterrand from Germany—I mean, from France—looked at me and said, ‘You know, what—why—how long you back for?’” Biden said.

The White House later corrected the records, replacing "Mitterrand" with "Macron."

Earlier this year, Biden also mistakenly referred to a 2021 conversation with Angela Merkel, the former Chancellor of Germany, as having taken place with the late German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who died in 2017.

At a New York fundraiser for his reelection campaign, the 81-year-old president inadvertently included Kohl in a story instead of Merkel, who was in office during the narrated conversation at a G7 summit in 2021.

Recently, at a news conference last week, the president even confused Vice President Kamala Harris with Donald Trump, his predecessor and the Republican presidential candidate.

"Look, I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president if she weren’t qualified to be president. So start there," he said.

Not familiar with his own team

There have been instances when the ageing president seemed unfamiliar with his own team members or, worse, did not remember them at all.

In September 2022, President Biden asked for Congresswoman Jackie Walorski, who had died in a car accident a month earlier.

At the White House event focused on hunger, Biden called out, “Jackie, are you here? Where’s Jackie?” Clearly confused by her absence, he added, “I think she was supposed to be here.”

He later apologised, according to Walorski’s family.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was another member of his team whom Joe Biden forgot a few times, referring to him as "the Black man" during a campaign stop in Las Vegas.

"It's all about treating people with dignity. For example, look at the heat I'm getting because I named a, uh, the Secretary of Defense, a black man," he said in an interview last week.

While some supporters argue he was speaking generally about Black administration members, many believe he simply forgot Austin's name. And this wasn’t the first time.

In March, Biden also referred to Austin as "the guy who runs that outfit over there."

"And I want to thank the sec — the, the, ah, former general. I keep calling him general, but my — the guy who runs that outfit over there," he said at a White House event.

Someone needs a break

Among the many nicknames Trump has used for Joe Biden, "Sleepy Joe" is likely to endure in public memory.

During his presidency, Biden has faced questions about not only his mental sharpness but also his physical health.

In 2021, two years after Trump first labelled him as “a sleepy guy in the basement of a house” who was barely aware of his surroundings, video footage showed Biden with his eyes closed at the COP26 summit.

During the opening remarks, he appeared to rest his eyes for around 20 seconds before being approached by an aide.

In 2022, another video surfaced showing Biden seeming to reach out for a handshake after a speech, leaving viewers confused. As he finished speaking, he turned to his right with his hand extended, but there was no one on stage to shake hands with.

One of several times Biden stumbled in front of cameras was in June 2024, when he tripped and fell while handing out diplomas at a military graduation in Colorado.

After shaking hands with the final graduate, Biden lost his balance and fell forward, needing assistance from three people to get back on his feet. Later, Biden told reporters he was “fine” and joked, “I got sandbagged.”

What year is it? And what am I saying?

The 46th president of the US has made several bizarre statements that are difficult to attribute solely to exhaustion or slips of the tongue, sparking public debate about his cognitive decline.

The peak of his nonsensical remarks came during his latest debate with Trump, which was the final straw for public opinion to question Biden’s mental abilities.

“I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows what he said either,” Trump responded to his sentences.

In September of last year, Biden inaccurately claimed he had attended "every mass shooting," despite there being over 600 such incidents in the US in 2023.

Speaking alongside Harris at the White House, he said, “After every mass shooting, we hear a simple message, the same message heard all over the country, and I’ve been to every mass shooting.”

Critics on social media quickly highlighted the discrepancy, just as when he confused the term "chiefs of staff" with "commander in chief," a week ago at a press conference.

It was the title he himself holds.

He mistakenly praised representative Nancy Pelosi for "rescuing the economy in the Great Depression" when he clearly meant the Great Recession of 2008.

Adding to the list, he referred to Egypt as Mexico while discussing Israel’s conflict with Gaza—confusing the two countries that are over 7,000 miles apart.

In some of these cases, the White House didn’t even attempt to correct the president’s remarks, possibly due to uncertainty about his intended meaning.