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President Joe Biden declared himself the “first Black woman” to “serve with a Black president” in his latest gaffe during one of his first post-debate interviews.
The 81-year-old president has endured a tough week as his political future hangs in the balance following a disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump.
The dismal performance instantly sent the Democrats into crisis mode with three senior party members – and several key megadonors – publicly calling on the president to step aside.
Meanwhile the Biden campaign has gone into damage control, setting up interviews where they hope the president can claw back confidence among voters and party members.
But in one of those first interviews, Biden made yet another slip-up as he appeared to mix himself up with Vice President Kamala Harris in a radio interview on Independence Day.
“By the way, I’m proud to be, as I said, the first vice president, first Black woman… to serve with a Black president,” he said in a clear slip on local Philadelphia radio station Wurd on Thursday.
Biden appeared to be highlighting his appointment of Harris, 59, as the first Black vice president as well as first woman to hold the job.
To add to the confusion, Biden was himself vice president to the first Black president, Barack Obama, serving from 2009.
In the interview, Biden also spoke of appointing the first Black woman to the Supreme Court, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
“Proud to be involved of the first Black woman on the Supreme Court. There’s so much that we can do because, look... we’re the United States of America,” he said.
Harris also fumbled later in the day when she almost called Biden ‘vice president’ during a lavish Fourth of July event at The White house.
“We give thanks to our commander-in-chief, the vice… the president of the United States! The extraordinary President of the United States Joe Biden,” she told the Washington audience at the evening do.
Hours earlier Biden slipped up once again, stumbling while giving a four-minute address during a barbecue for military families on the White House South Lawn.
In the remarks, the president appeared to refer to Trump, his 2024 election rival running for the Republican ticket, as “one of four colleagues”.
Biden’s lack of coherence in the first election debate has seen him slipping in the polls over the last week, with Trump now leading the president by six points in a poll commissioned by The Washington Post.
Meanwhile, Harris’ popularity is on the rise as a replacement for Biden, with a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll finding 81 per cent view her favorably to 78 per cent for Biden.
The president, however, has remained publicly defiant in the face of calls to step aside, declaring to 20 senior governors that he was in good health on Wednesday, reported Politico.
White House Press Secretary Jean-Pierre also issued a firm denial toThe Independent this week when asked whether the president has any form of dementia or degenerative brain disease.
But, in comments to The New York Times on Thursday, Biden quipped: “It’s just my brain”.
Campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon told the newspaper that Biden “was clearly making a joke”.
