President Biden appeared to flub Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s title and Pentagon office during a ceremony at the White House honoring two female military aviators for promotion to four-star commands.
“I want to thank Sec-, the former general, I keep calling him ‘General.’ My — the guy who runs that outfit over there,” Biden said in remarks from the White House to mark International Women’s Day.
Biden then quickly added, “I want to make sure we thank the secretary for all he’s done.”
The president had thanked Austin earlier in his comments for the secretary’s work addressing sexual assault and violence against women in the military.
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“So much of unit cohesion is built on trusting your fellow service members have your back,” Biden said. “I know Secretary Austin takes this as seriously as Vice President [Kamala] Harris.”
During the event, Biden hailed Air Force Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost and Army Lt. Gen. Laura Richardson as “two outstanding and eminently qualified warriors and patriots.”
The 78-year-old Biden’s career has been punctuated by verbal stumbles, unusual turns of phrase, and quirky stories. As the president told an audience in 2018, “I am a gaffe machine.”
In 2008, he introduced his presidential running mate as “Barack America,” and in 2012, he accidentally revealed on Meet the Press that he supported same-sex marriage. Former President Barack Obama had not yet staked out a public position favoring it.
Last month, Biden mixed up Canada and China in his opening remarks to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau before correcting himself.
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Biden came under fire after asking a head nurse if she was a student during a virtual visit to a coronavirus vaccination site. Critics pounced on him, viewing the remark as sexist.
“Are you a freshman at the university?” Biden asks a nurse giving him a video tour of a vaccination site in Arizona.
“No,” she says.
“You look like a freshman,” he says.
(She later reveals she’s been a registered nurse for nine years now.) pic.twitter.com/u5rPkJrJYi
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) February 8, 2021
