Getty First Lady Jill Biden gives remarks at a Black History Month celebration event, where she accidentally called Kamala Harris "President" of the United States.
During a Black History Month celebration on Monday, February 28, First Lady Jill Biden accidentally introduced Vice President Kamala Harris as the “President of the United States,” while President Joe Biden was sitting on the same stage and watching. Read on to watch a video below of the incident and learn more about what happened.
Jill Biden Said She Was Just Trying to ‘Make You Laugh’
In the short nine-second video above, Jill Biden was introducing Harris before she came to the podium to speak. But Jill Biden accidentally called Harris “President” of the United States during her introduction.
“Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United — the Vice President of the…” she said. Jill Biden quickly corrected herself in midsentence when she realized she misspoke and then ended up laughing before she could finish her sentence.
While the shorter version of the exchange is circulating widely on social media, a longer version can also be viewed in the tweet below.
Jill Biden introducing Kamala Harris:
“Ladies and gentlemen, the president… I mean the Vice President… I just said that to make you laugh.”
In the longer video, Jill Biden is sharing some of Harris’ accomplishments before introducing her. You can see President Biden looking around and jokingly raising his hands in response to Jill Biden’s statement. Jill Biden then jokes, “I just said that to make you laugh,” and everyone in the audience laughs in response. Then she says, “The Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris.”
The mistake was made during a Black History Month celebration at the White House, Fox News reported.
President Biden Has Accidentally Referred to Harris as President Before Too
President Biden himself has accidentally referred to Harris as “President” on occasion.
He did so during a graduation speech in December at South Carolina State University, Fox News reported. He accidentally said, “Of course, President Harris is a proud Howard [University] alum.”
He did the same in March 2021 and also in December 2020 when he accidentally called Harris “President-elect Harris,” Fox News reported.
Biden himself is known for making more gaffes than his wife. In March 2021, he accidentally said that he came to the Senate “120 years ago” while he was talking about filibusters.
He said:
Filibuster. Filibuster. With regard to the filibuster, I believe we should go back to a position of the filibuster that existed just when I came to the United States Senate 120 years ago. And that is that it used to be required for the filibuster… And I had a card on this. I was going to give you the statistics, but you probably know them. That it used to be that from between 1917 and 1971, the filibuster existed, there were a total of 58 motions to break the filibuster, that whole time. Last year alone, there were five times that many. So it’s being abused in a gigantic way. And for example, it used to be, you had to stand there and talk and talk and talk and talk until you collapsed. And guess what? People got tired of talking and tired of collapsing. Filibusters broke down and were able to break the filibuster, get a [inaudible] vote.
In August 2020, at the end of the Democratic National Convention, viewers debated about whether or not Biden referred to himself as “Joe Biden’s husband.”
In tender moment, Joe Biden embraces Jill Biden following her keynote #DemConvention remarks.
“I’m Jill Biden’s husband…You can see why she’s the love of my life and the rock of our family.” t.co/g2aifw44ZR
Some people said he clearly referred to himself as “Jill Biden’s husband,” a term he often used to describe his and his wife’s relationship. In April 2019, The Hill reported that he introduced himself as “Jill Biden’s husband” when he first kicked off his campaign.