Former vice president and presidential hopeful Joe Biden confused Iraq with Iran twice while on the campaign trail on Tuesday.
"Iran's parliament voted to eject all Americans and coalition forces from the country," Biden said at a rally in New York. He made the mistake again when he said Trump threatened to get the United States into war with Iraq.
"I said not long ago that as the walls close in on this president, I worried that he was going to get us in war with Iraq," Biden said at private fundraiser in New York City.
Also, per pooler @ShaneGoldmacher, Biden twice appeared to misspeak, saying 'Iraq' instead of 'Iran':
"I said not long ago that as the walls close in on this president, I worried that he was going to get us in war with Iraq, as the ultimate wag the dog...'' Biden said.
— Trip Gabriel (@tripgabriel) January 7, 2020
Iraq's parliament approved a resolution calling for the removal of U.S. troops from the country in the wake of a drone strike on Iranian general Qassem Soleimani. Biden condemned Trump's decision to eliminate Soleimani as "a huge escalatory move in an already dangerous region." This was a reversal from a 1996 interview, in which Biden described a bombing by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as an "act of war" and said the United States "could take whatever action it deems appropriate" to retaliate.
Biden has confused locations on the campaign trail before. He said he was in Ohio while campaigning in Iowa and he said he was in Iowa while campaigning in New Hampshire.
He falsely claimed he was vice president during the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, which occurred in 2018. He defended the mistake by saying he was still called "vice president" at the time of the shooting. He also mistakenly said Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated in the late 1970's, not the late 1960's.
Biden has said his stumbles occur due to fatigue and not due to a childhood stutter.