President Biden appeared confused as he took the stage with other world leaders at APEC Thursday — after botching the name of the venue and refusing to mention a US corporation for fear of mispronouncing it.
Video shared widely online showed the oldest-ever US president picking at his nose and looking around confused as he takes his spot for a photo op at the San Francisco-based conference.
As other leaders take their spots, Biden, who turns 81 next week, looks around slowly with a frown and at times points to the ground at pre-arranged markers.
One foreign dignitary then seems to switch places with another — leaving Biden standing agape.
As the cameras flash, the president could be seen looking around at the other members of the group — with a confused expression on his face — before he is called on to speak.
He then grabs the arm of a dignitary next to him as he walks to the podium, where he starts by apologizing for keeping everyone waiting at the event.
The video was shared by the Republican National Committee Research account on X, which said: “YIKES: Biden gets VERY confused as he stands among fellow world leaders at the APEC summit.”
“How long will they keep pretending?” a conservative account replied. “This is getting serious with all the stuff going on in the world.”
But Chris D. Jackson, a Tennessee elections official, conceded: “Actually, it looks like the other leaders were confused, considering they are the ones in the wrong spot.”
The viral incident came the same day Biden decided not to name an American business in his remarks about US corporate innovation out of fear he would botch its pronunciation.
“IBM, Organon, Visa — look, they make up, they make our region more resilient, more secure,” the president said.
“Here in this world-renowned hub of innovation, leading tech companies like Anthropic and — I’m going to mispronounce [it], I’m not going to even try,” he said.
“It’s better not to try and not mispronounce than try and mispronounce,” he said to warm laughter from the other dignitaries and business moguls at the conference.
“Point is, small and medium-sized business startups are getting an accent as well.”
Just the day before, the president avoided another potentially challenging name, when he decided not to try to pronounce the name of CBS White House correspondent Weijia Jiang.
But he did botch the name of the event space where he was speaking on Thursday.
“The Marcone Center’s about as big as my state,” Biden said, referring to the Moscone Center — named after former San Francisco Mayor George Moscone, who was assassinated in 1978 along with Supervisor Harvey Milk.
The gaffes spell trouble for the president’s re-election campaign, as polls show that a majority of voters feel Bidenno longer has “the competence to carry out the job of president.”
Under a third of respondents, 31%, believe the president is still competent, a recent Yahoo News/YouGov poll shows, a four-percentage point decrease from February.
Concerns over Biden’s “health and mental acuity” have also risen, with 64% saying they are somewhat or very concerned about the matter.