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Biden forgets Pentagon head’s name in BET interview, calls him simply ‘black man’

After Joe Biden was unable to recall Lloyd Austin’s name, he mentioned Supreme Court Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, a black woman

NEW YORK, July 18. /TASS/. US President Joe Biden, unable to recall the name of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in an interview with BET, referred to him simply as a "black man."

"Look at the heat I’m getting because I named a, uh, the secretary of defense, [unintelligible] black man, […] because of the people I’ve named," Biden said in an interview with the BET TV channel, which has a mainly African American audience.

After Biden was unable to recall Austin’s name, he mentioned Supreme Court Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, a black woman. It is unclear whether Biden decided that Brown occupies the office of the Defense Secretary or mentioned her while listing high-ranking African Americans.

The video of Biden’s latest gaffe spread like wildfire in the pro-Republican segment of the X social platform. TheBlaze, a conservative website, said that "Biden is cooked." Republican supporters and conservative commentators noted that "it is extremely insulting to boil a man down to their skin color."

The 81-year-old US president often makes mistakes during his public speeches. Republicans use this as ammo to challenge Biden’s mental and physical capabilities to continue leading the country.