Joe Biden Speech Gaffe Sparks Speculation

Recent gaffes have sparked speculation over the cognitive health of President Joe Biden on social media.

Multiple outlets reported that at the second of three fundraisers in New York City on February 7, Biden said: "And then [German Chancellor] Helmut Kohl turned to me and said, 'What would you say, Mr. President, if you picked up the London Times and learned that 1,000 people had broken down the doors of the British parliament, killed some bobbies on the way in, to deny the prime minister to take office," referring to the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

The German chancellor in 2021 was Angela Merkel, and the current chancellor is Olaf Scholz. Biden reportedly repeated the mistake at the third fundraiser stop.

Biden also confused current French President Emmanuel Macron with François Mitterrand over the weekend. Mitterrand died in 1996 after he was president from 1981 to 1995.

Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment via email.

Conservative figures took to social media to question Biden's mental acuity after the reported gaffes.

After the February 7 slip, entrepreneur Mario Nafwal wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that Biden was showing signs of "mental impairment."

"Joe Biden either talks to dead people or his senility is kicking into high gear," conservative commentator Ian Miles Cheong said on X.

The Citizen Free Press wrote this was Biden's "latest dementia moment."

"Here we go again," wrote U.K.-based Repubblica journalist Antonello Guerrera.

One account tweeted a picture of Biden holding his hand out, satirically saying he was "shaking hands with Mitterand & Kohl," because nobody else is pictured in the apparently cropped photograph.

Biden, 81, has faced repeated questions about his cognitive health.

In October, podcast host, comedian and UFC commentator Joe Rogan talked about a Biden gaffe in which he called out for Rep. Jackie Walorski.

Walorski had died in a car crash almost two months prior.

"He's so gone. He's f****** got dementia," Rogan said during an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, "There's no if and or buts about it.

"If you talk to any person who treats people with dementia and you show them what he used to be like versus what he's like now, there is clear evidence of cognitive decline."

A poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research released in August 2023 said 77 percent of voters thought Biden was too old for a second term.

Dr. Kevin O'Connor, the physician to the president, said in February 2023 that "Biden remains a healthy, vigorous, 80-year-old male, who is fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency."

Newsweek reached out to the White House to confirm if another report will be issued this month.

Age might be a factor for Donald Trump as well, although the former president also insists he is in excellent cognitive condition. Trump will be 78 at the start of a new term if he were to win the 2024 election.

Trump has made gaffes on the campaign trail including mixing up Biden and former President Barack Obama's names several times.

Trump said he was being "sarcastic" when mixing up Obama and Biden.

Republican Congressman Ronny Jackson, the former White House doctor, said on Fox News in November last year that Trump was "incredibly sharp."

Trump also appeared to forget briefly that Jackson was no longer the White House doctor. Trump did this while saying he is "a lot sharper than" GOP presidential rival Nikki Haley.

Trump did appear to realize his mistake, adding that Jackson was "a fantastic, uh, congressman from Texas."

A Monmouth University poll of 737 registered voters in October last year says 48 percent of people think Trump is too old to run again, including a third of Republicans. The figure was 76 percent for Biden.