The flubs that could not be dubbed: Biden’s Putin gaffe, presser stumbles too much to hide

While President Joe Biden’s White House staff have long edited his official transcripts for clarity, his Thursday evening flub referring to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin” was far too substantive to gloss over and his subsequent press conference did little to help him move past it.

Biden has faced scrutiny over his mental acuity and fitness for office in the wake of his disastrous June 27 debate performance in which he often stumbled over his answers and appeared lost on stage.

Ahead of his planned press conference Thursday evening in which Biden faced pressure to prove himself to a skeptical media and public, the president made the major Zelensky-Putin gaffe, which he immediately corrected, though it still drew viral attention.

“And now I want to hand it over to the president of Ukraine, who has as much courage as he has determination. Ladies and gentlemen, President Putin!" Biden said, before attempting to walk away from the stage without shaking Zelesnky’s hand.

"President Putin?” Biden caught himself. “We’re gonna beat President Putin. President Zelensky! I'm so focused on beating Putin. We got to worry about it – anyway, Mr. President."

Zelensky laughed off the misstatement and retorted that “I’m better,” in reference to Putin. Both men attempted to move on, but the clip went viral and appeared on Russian state media within minutes.

The gaffe followed reporting from the Daily Wire on the increased pace of Biden’s misstatements and the rate of the White House’s edits to his transcripts. Staffers regularly cross out incorrect words Biden used in his transcript and/or insert correct words within brackets.

The news outlet highlighted a near-doubling of the number of such corrections from June 2023 to May 2024.

In June of last year, staffers edited 33 errors, for a correction rate of 3.2 per 10,000 words. In May of 2024, staffers corrected 51 total errors, for a rate of 7.2% per 10,000 words.

Biden carried on with his press conference Thursday evening, albeit with some delay. After concluding his prepared remarks, he acknowledged having received in advance a list of reporters on whom to call.

“This moment matters. We must rise to meet it with that, I'll take your questions. I've been given a list of people to call on here,” he said at the end of his prepared remarks.

He then fielded questions about his misstatement regarding Putin and whether his perceived decline had weakened American standing in the world.

“Did you see any damage [to] our standing in my leading this conference?” he retorted. “Have you seen a more successful conference? What do you think?”

He went on to highlight that he had corrected himself shortly after the flub, saying “[a]nd… the Putin piece, I was talking about Putin, and I said, and now at the very end, I said, here, I mean Putin. I said, ‘No, I'm sorry, Zelensky.’”

But Biden also made multiple unrelated misstatements in the news conference, including an awkward moment in which he appeared to refer to Vice President Kamala Harris as former President Donald Trump.

“I wouldn't have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president that I think she was not qualified to be president,” he said on the question about Harris’s electability, should he end his reelection campaign. 

Trump mocked Biden over the flub, posting on Truth Social that "Crooked Joe begins his 'Big Boy' Press Conference with, 'I wouldn't have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president, though I think she was not qualified to be president.' Great job, Joe!"

Near the end of the conference, Biden defended his handling of public concerns over his health and fitness for office by highlighting his regular public appearances.

“I'm determined on running, but I think it's important that I allay fears [by letting] them see me out there,” he said. “For the longest time it was, you know, ‘Biden's not prepared to sit with us, unscripted. Biden's not prepared to–’ anyway. And so what I'm doing is, and I've been doing, I think we've done, over 20 major events, from Wisconsin to North Carolina ... to demonstrate that I'm going out into the areas where you think we can win, we persuade people to move our way or people already there.”

“This is ridiculous. There's so much we can do still. I'm determined to get it done. It's about freedom,” he added.

At the conclusion of the conference, Biden offered a strange answer to a final question from reporters about Trump mocking his memory over the Harris-Trump flub.

"You misspoke in your opening answer. You referred to Vice President Harris as Vice President Trump. Right now, Donald Trump is using that to mock your age and your memory. How do you combat that criticism from tonight?" one reporter asked.

"Listen to him," Biden said.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X.