President Biden on Thursday claimed to have known Vladimir Putin for “over 40 years,” despite the Russian leader having served as a KGB agent dating back to the 1980s.
The flub came during an ABC News interview with anchor David Muir as the president was visiting the Normandy American Cemetery in France to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
“I’ve known him for over 40 years. He’s concerned me for 40 years,” Biden said. “He’s not a decent man. He’s a dictator and he’s struggling to make sure he holds his country together while still keeping his assault going,” referring to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
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President Biden on Thursday said he’s known Russian President Vladimir Putin for 40 years during a TV news interview. (AP)
Putin began working as an intelligence officer for the then-KGB in 1975 after attending Leningrad State University. He was in the East German city of Dresden in 1985 where he witnessed the collapse of a communist state first-hand in 1989.
He then began a career in government that catapulted him to the upper echelon of Russian politics. Putin has held continuous positions as president or prime minister since 1999.
Biden’s comments came amid another round of gaffes and slip-ups at public events that left critics questioning his cognitive performance. Most recently, he raised eyebrows when he said last month at the White House Rose Garden that American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who is currently being held captive by Hamas, was in attendance.
“My administration is working around the clock to free the remaining hostages, just as we have freed hostages already. And here with us today is Hersh Goldberg-Polin,” Biden said, before quickly correcting himself.
“And still he is not here with us, but he’s still being held by Hamas,” Biden then said, recognizing the 23-year-old’s parents, who were in attendance that day.
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On May 19, Biden claimed at a Michigan campaign event that he was vice president during the COVID pandemic and that former President Obama dispatched him to Detroit to help battle the disease.
“And when I was vice president, things were kind of bad during the pandemic,” he said. “And, what happened was Barack said to me: ‘Go to Detroit — and help fix it.’”
At a trade union conference in Washington, D.C., in April, he read the instructions on the teleprompter out loud.
“I see an economy that grows from the middle out and bottom up, where the wealthy pay their fair share, so we can have childcare, paid leave and so much more and still reduce the federal deficit and increase economic growth. Folks, imagine what we can do next, four more years, pause,” Biden said.
President Biden once faced criticism on social media over an apparent gaffe when he claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin is currently “losing the war in Iraq.” (JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
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That same month, he urged Americans to “choose freedom over democracy” by reelecting him. The White House recently issued nine corrections to Biden’s gaffe-filled speech to the NAACP in May.