5 recent gaffes by President Biden

President Biden’s cognitive performance is once again being thrust into the spotlight following a new report from The Wall Street Journal that the 81-year-old is showing signs of slowing down during private meetings. 

Many Republicans and even some Democrats said the president showed his age in those settings, according to the Journal, citing conversations with 45 lawmakers and administration officials about the president’s mental performance. 

White House officials are dismissing many of the accounts, but here are five of President Biden’s recent gaffes.

May 20: Biden says Hamas hostage being held in Gaza is at the White House 

President Biden said at a Rose Garden event celebrating Jewish American Heritage Month in May that American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg Polin, who is currently being held captive by Hamas, was in attendance. 

‘My administration is working around the clock to free the remaining hostages, just as we have freed hostages already. And here with us today is Hersh Goldberg Polin,’ Biden said, before quickly correcting himself. 

‘And still he is not here with us, but he’s still being held by Hamas,’ Biden then said, recognizing the 23-year-old’s parents, who were in attendance that day. 

May 19: Biden suggests he was vice president during the coronavirus pandemic 

President Biden appeared to claim during a campaign event in Michigan that he was vice president during the coronavirus pandemic and that former President Obama dispatched him to Detroit to help battle the disease. 

‘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.’’ 

But the coronavirus pandemic, numbered COVID-19 due to global health officials having deemed it an outbreak in 2019, transpired in the latter years of former President Trump’s term, not when Obama was president. Biden was last vice president in January 2017. 

April 24: Biden reads teleprompter instructions out loud 

President Biden, during a speech at a trade union conference in Washington, D.C., appeared to read teleprompter instructions out loud. 

‘I see an economy that grows from the middle out and bottom up, where the wealthy pay their fair share, so we can have childcare, paid leave and so much more and still reduce the federal deficit and increase economic growth. Folks, imagine what we can do next, four more years, pause,’ Biden said.  

The crowd then broke out in a chant of ‘Four more years!’ while Biden did indeed pause. 

April 23: Biden asks crowd how many times does Trump have to prove ‘we can’t be trusted’? 

Biden, speaking during a campaign rally in Tampa, Florida, said that ‘now, in America today, in 2024, women have fewer rights than their mothers and their grandmothers had because of Donald Trump.’ 

‘Look, I don’t think we are going to let them get away with it, do you?’ Biden asked the crowd, who shouted ‘No!’ in response. 

‘And folks, in a sense, I don’t know why we are surprised by Trump — how many times does he have to prove we can’t be trusted?’ Biden then asked the crowd. 

Feb. 7: Biden claims he spoke with German chancellor who died in 2017 

Biden in 2021 claimed he spoke with the late German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who died in 2017, while recalling past conversations during fundraising events. 

Biden attended three campaign reception events in New York, according to his schedule. At his second and third events, he told donors about conversations surrounding Jan. 6, 2021, at his first Group of Seven (G7) meeting as president, which took place in England in June of that year. 

The president said that Kohl asked him what he would say if he learned 1,000 people stormed the British Parliament in an attempt to deny the next prime minister from taking office. 

The annual meeting was not attended by Kohl, as he had been dead for four years, but by former German Chancellor Angela Merkel. 

Fox News’ Landon Mion, Charles Creitz and Elizabeth Pritchett contributed to this report.