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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Guardian staff

Biden mistakes living European leader for dead one – for second time in a week

Then French president François Mitterrand and then German chancellor Helmut Kohl hold hands during a visit to Verdun in 1984.
Then French president François Mitterrand and then German chancellor Helmut Kohl during a visit to Verdun in 1984. Photograph: Reuters

Joe Biden has twice made gaffes this week in which he told anecdotes wrongly identifying dead European leaders as having talked to him about the events of the attack on the Capitol on 6 January 2021.

On Wednesday at a campaign fundraiser in New York, Biden reportedly referred to the former German chancellor Helmut Kohl as talking to him about European concerns about the attempt to stop the certification of his 2020 election win, when he apparently meant Angela Merkel. Kohl died in 2017.

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