Biden notes hes leaving office soon, calls Angola a city as hes led around African nation: You dont have to clap

Retiring President Biden noted Tuesday that he’s leaving office next month — telling an audience in Angola that “you don’t have to clap” — after stumbling and referring to the country as a “city.”“Ladies and gentlemen, as you know, I’m in the final weeks of my presidency.You don’t have to clap for that.

You can if you want,” Biden, 82, said while speaking behind a glass barrier streaked by rain.The lame duck began his highly anticipated speech on an awkward note when he hailed “Angola, a vibrant city” before attempting to mop up the gaffe.“Look, not the city,” he added.“The city, I know, is not Angola.

But in Angola, in a vibrant city.”He similarly referred to President-elect Donald Trump’s first term as spanning “eight years” before again catching himself and correctly saying four.Hours earlier, Biden was delicately maneuvered down a red carpet for a photo-op alongside Angola president João Lourenço — with his counterpart putting a hand on his back and pointing the way, recalling similar instances where world leaders treated Biden as if he was confused and needed direction, such as Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s guidance in June at a skydiving demonstration.The White House dismissed coverage of earlier instances of Biden seeming confused at such events as deceptive “cheap fake videos” that excluded significant context — but that defense was belied not long after by fellow Democratic leaders staging a mutiny and forcing Biden to give up the party’s presidential nomination due to what they too perceived as his cognitive decline.Biden read from prepared remarks during his first visit to Africa as president, noting that the first slaves brought to the colony of Virginia in 1619 were from Angola and that Washington and Luanda are now working closely together after the US backed an insurgency against the formerly Soviet-backed government.“The story of Angola and the United States holds a lesson for the ...