Helmut Kohl instead of Angela Merkel: US President Joe Biden has once again confused a European leader with a deceased predecessor. At an event to collect campaign donations in New York on Wednesday evening, the 81-year-old Biden recounted a conversation he had with Helmut Kohl during the G7 summit in 2021 – but the long-time Chancellor had already died in 2017. Instead, Germany was represented by Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU).
During his appearance, Biden recalled the G7 summit that took place in Great Britain in June 2021 – a few months after his inauguration and the storming of the Capitol in Washington by supporters of his predecessor Donald Trump. “Helmut Kohl, the German, looked at me and said: ‘What would you say, Mr President, if you opened the British Times tomorrow and read that 1,000 people forced open the door of the British Parliament and killed people with the intention of preventing the prime minister from taking office?'” Biden said, according to transcripts from journalists who accompanied him at the appointment in New York.
Events of this kind are neither filmed nor recorded, but the press can take notes.
Last week, Biden mentioned the G7 summit in 2021 in a speech in Las Vegas. He confused French President Emmanuel Macron with his predecessor François Mitterrand, who died almost 30 years ago, and initially referred to him as the head of state of Germany.
The incumbent US President often refers to the summit at which, according to him, international leaders expressed concern about democracy in the US because of the storming of the Capitol.
Polls show people in the United States are increasingly concerned about the advanced age of Biden, who wants to run for the presidency a second time. At the start of a possible second term he would be 82 years old. Those surveyed were less concerned about 77-year-old Donald Trump, who was also notable for his interruptions.
In January, Biden’s most likely challenger in the presidential election confused his former UN ambassador and current intra-party opponent Nikki Haley with the former Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi.
On Friday, Biden will receive Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) for a detailed discussion in the White House. First, Scholz and Biden want to exchange ideas in private, then they will bring in their advisors.
