Biden appears to struggle when attempting to refer to Defense Secretary Austin

President Joe Biden during remarks Tuesday on International Women's Day appeared to stumble while trying to improvise a closing expression of thanks to his Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who was standing behind the president, just feet away.

"And I want to thank the Se — the, the former general — I keep calling him general, but my, my, the guy who runs that outfit over there," Biden said. "I want to make sure we thank the Secretary for all he's done to try to implement what we've just talked about and for recommending these two women for promotion."

Less than two minutes before his apparent fumble the president had mentioned "Secretary Austin" in his prepared remarks. 

While Biden has a history of so-called "gaffes," and has even admitted to being a "gaffe machine," some people have suggested that the president has cognitive issues.

"Well, every day now pretty much when he speaks, when he's allowed to speak, he's struggling," conservative commentator Sean Hannity said last week about the 78-years-old Biden. "Something's going on here, LJ, and it's beginning to scare me."

So far during his tenure President Biden has not participated in an official press conference with reporters.

"President Joe Biden is the first executive in four decades to reach this point in his term without holding a formal question and answer session," according to the Associated Press. "Biden has opted to take questions about as often as most of his recent predecessors, but he tends to field just one or two informal inquiries at a time, usually in a hurried setting at the end of an event."