Biden mistakenly claims that he was vice president during COVID-19 pandemic

“And when I was vice president, things were kind of bad during the pandemic,” Biden said. “And what happened was, Barack said to me, ‘Go to Detroit, and help fix it.’ Well the poor mayor, he spent more time with me than he thought he was ever going to have to. God love you.”

By Misty Severi

Published: May 20, 2024 6:20pm

Updated: May 20, 2024 9:07pm

President Joe Biden on Sunday appeared to mistakenly claim that he was the vice president during the COVID-19 pandemic, during a speech to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in Detroit, Michigan.

Biden was vice president to former President Barack Obama from 2009-2017, and the pandemic did not begin in the United States until 2020, while former Vice President Mike Pence served as the deputy to former President Donald Trump. Biden did become president towards the end of the pandemic.

Biden claimed however that Obama told him to go help fix the pandemic in Detroit. Biden did not state a specific year that the order took place, but he did meet with Detroit's Democratic Mayor Mike Duggan in 2014, shortly after Duggan was elected.

“And when I was vice president, things were kind of bad during the pandemic,” Biden told the audience, per the New York Post. “And what happened was, Barack said to me, ‘Go to Detroit, and help fix it.’ ... Well, the poor mayor, he spent more time with me than he thought he was ever going to have to. God love you.”

Duggan has not issued a statement about the mix-up.

The White House published a transcript of the president's address to the NAACP on Sunday, where it scratched out the word "pandemic" and replaced with recession, indicating he likely meant to refer to the recession following the 2008 economic crisis.

It is not the first time that Biden failed to remember when he was vice president. During Special Counsel Robert Hur's investigation into Biden's handling of classified documents that stem from his vice presidency, Hur mentioned that Biden forgot when he was vice president twice.

“In his interview with our office, Mr. Biden’s memory was worse,” Hur said in his report. “He did not remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview when his term ended (‘if it was 2013—when did I stop being Vice President?’), and forgetting on the second day of the interview when his term began (‘in 2009, am I still Vice President?’).”

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just the News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.