President Joe Biden committed his second historical bungle this week, saying on Wednesday he had spoken with the late German Chancellor Helmut Kohl in 2021. Kohl died in 2017.
Biden made the mistake while telling a group of donors about his first Group of Seven event back in 2021. The Group of Seven is a meet up of leaders from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and the United States.
“First got elected president I went to a G7 meeting with seven heads of state in Europe and I sat down and said America’s back,” Biden said. “And the president of France looked at me and said — for how long?”
“And I never thought of it this way,” Biden continued. “And then Helmut Kohl of Germany looked at me and said, ‘What would you say Mr. President if you picked up the London Times tomorrow morning and learned there’s 1000 broken down the doors of the British parliament. Killed some [inaudible] on the way in, to deny the next prime minister to take office.’ And you think, what would we think?”
The actual German chancellor at the time was Angela Merkel.
At a later event the same day, Biden reiterated that he had spoken with Kohl at the meeting.
— Jacqui Heinrich (@JacquiHeinrich) February 8, 2024
On Sunday, Biden referenced the 2021 G-7 meeting in the United Kingdom and a gathering of NATO leaders that took place in June of 2021 in which a conversation about the U.S. Capitol breach on January 6 apparently came up.
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“I sat down and I said, ‘America’s back’ and Mitterrand from Germany — I mean from France looked at me and said, ‘You know why — how long you back for?'” Biden recalled, invoking François Mitterrand, the former president of France, according to a widely shared post to X by National Pulse editor-in-chief Raheem Kassam along with a clip of the remarks.
WATCH: Joe Biden says he recently met with “Mitterand from Germany.”
Mitterand was the FRENCH President between 1981 and 1995.
He also died in 1996. pic.twitter.com/W0YPBDp69n
— Raheem. (@RaheemKassam) February 5, 2024
A glaring issue with that recollection is that Mitterrand, who served as president of France from 1981 to 1995, has been dead since 1996 —roughly 25 years earlier. At the time of the G-7 meeting in 2021, Emmanuel Macron was president of France.
Daniel Chaitin contributed to this article.
Related: Biden Claims He Met With France’s Mitterrand In 2021. There’s Just One Problem.