Speaking to reporters Wednesday, President Joe Biden was discussing the weekend mutiny in Russia… or did he mean Iraq?
CNN asked Biden whether Putin had become weaker after the short-lived mutiny over the weekend. The ruthless mercenary Wagner Group’s tanks rolled through Russia and stopped just hours away from the gates of Moscow before suddenly turning around.
“Absolutely,” Biden replied. “I know he is.”
Then, Biden tried to describe the full extent of Putin’s weakness… in “the war in Iraq.”
“It’s hard to tell [the extent],” Biden said. “But he’s clearly losing the war in Iraq.”
Biden, 80, is running for re-election despite deep, persistent concerns about his advanced age and his mental acuity.
Team Biden has defended the incumbent president by pointing to similar gaffes from previous presidents. Biden isn’t the only president to confuse Iraq with Ukraine.
Former President George W. Bush made headlines last year for referring to the Russia-Ukraine War as “a wholly unjustified invasion of Iraq,” and Bush himself presided over the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
At the time, Bush lightened the mood by cracking a joke about his own age. Bush said at the time, “I mean Ukraine… Anyway, I’m 75.”
Bush left office at the age of 62. Now at 76, Bush is still three full years younger than Biden.
Take a look —
Biden: "[Putin] is clearly losing the war in Iraq" pic.twitter.com/dKt6yWWGFx
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 28, 2023
Later in Wednesday’s interview, Biden elaborated on his theory of Putin’s decline.
“He’s losing the war at home, and he has become a bit of a pariah around the world,” Biden added. “And it’s not just NATO, it’s not just the European Union, it’s Japan.”
Biden seemed more certain during Wednesday’s interview than he did in his remarks from earlier this week.
“It’s still too early to reach a definitive conclusion about where this is going,” Biden told reporters inside the White House earlier this week, in his first public remarks on the mutiny. The remarks were reported by CNN.
“The ultimate outcome of all this remains to be seen, but no matter what comes next I will keep making sure that our allies and our partners are closely aligned in how we are reading and responding to the situation.”
The Horn editorial team