Joe Biden Recalls 2021 Chat With French President Who Died In 1996

President Joe Biden on Sunday said he had a conversation in 2021 with former French President Francois Mitterrand, who died in 1996. (Watch the video below.)

The president meant current French President Emmanuel Macron, who has been in office since 2017.

The mixup in a rambling anecdote didn’t do Biden, 81, any favors in his attempt to quell doubts about his mental sharpness. But his expected November opponent, the criminally indicted former President Donald Trump, 77, is also facing scrutiny on the competency front.

Biden was speaking in Las Vegas, Nevada, before Tuesday’s Democratic primary. He attempted to draw parallels to the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol insurrection.

“Right after I was elected, I went to what they call a G7 meeting, all the NATO leaders,” Biden said of the June 2021 gathering. “It was in the south of England and I sat down and I said, ‘America’s back,’ and Mitterrand from Germany, I mean from France, looked at me and said ― said, ‘You know, why ― how long you back for?’ And I looked at him and the chancellor of Germany said, ’What would you say, Mr. President, if you picked up the paper tomorrow in the London Times and the London Times said, ‘A thousand people break through the House of Commons, break down the doors, two bobbies are killed in order to stop the election of the prime minister. What would you say?’ I never thought about it from that perspective. What would we say if that happened in another democracy around the world?”

Biden transitioned to stirring outrage at Trump’s incendiary language about immigrants.

But his handle on French presidential history had already taken a beating. Mitterrand served as president from 1981 to 1995 and died at 79 the following year. Macron, 46, took office in 2017 and his second term is up in 2027.