“The Late Show” host Stephen Colbert skewered President Biden Tuesday for claiming to have recently met with a French president who died in 1996, joking that Biden is so old he can actually speak with dead world leaders.
Biden recounted a story over the weekend he has told many times during his presidency, about a meeting he had with French President Emmanuel Macron at a G7 meeting in 2021. But this time, Biden referred to Macron as the late Francois Mitterrand.
Colbert began the bit by noting how Biden rejected the offer of an “immediate” presidential debate with Trump on Monday while exiting a bubble tea restaurant, with the current president joking his predecessor has “nothing else to do.” He went on to tie the clip with a recent statement Biden made about his sister at a union meeting.
“My sister’s a hell of a lot brighter than I am. My sister was three years younger than me, she’s now 23 years younger than me. I don’t know how the hell that happened,” Biden said.
Colbert chuckled and responded to the clip, “However that happened… is there any way we can do that to you, too? Can we get you whatever pills she’s on, maybe grind them up and put ’em in your bubble tea?”
Colbert then said that if Biden did debate Trump, it’s highly likely the current president would embarrass himself by misspeaking.
“If Biden does debate Trump, it’s going to be a challenging thing to avoid any big gaffes. Just this past Sunday, during a speech in Las Vegas, Biden said he had a conversation in 2021 with former president Francois Mitterrand,” Colbert said. “Just one problem: Mitterrand died in 1996.”
He continued, “Now, everyone is saying he meant Macron and saying the wrong name could happen to anyone. You know how it is. You’re on a date with someone new, you go back to their place, things are getting pretty hot and heavy, and then in a moment of passion, you accidentally scream out the name of long-dead French President Francois Mitterrand.”
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Colbert went on to joke that this might not have been a mistake at all, but Biden having supernatural ability because he’s “so old.”
“But here’s the thing. Here’s the thing. I think this may not have been an actual gaffe,” he quipped. “I think this could be proof that Joe Biden has the ability to communicate with the dead world leaders. He’s so old, he straddles the line between this world and the next. That means — follow me — that means Biden can pierce the veil of mortality to assemble the greatest team to tackle any problem.”
He then shared a photo of Biden alone at a conference table and said, “Here’s a photo of him discussing climate change with Lincoln, Churchill, Joan of Arc, and Genghis Khan.”
He joked further, “I’m telling you. It’s a feature, not a bug. It’s all summed up in his new campaign slogan, ‘Biden 2024: I see dead people!”
