President Joe Biden was caught on camera in an embarrassing situation as he appeared to forget the name of the Australian Prime Minister.
Biden had been joined virtually by UK PM Boris Johnson and Australia’s PM Scott Morrison to mark the nations joining a major new defence alliance.
The two appeared remotely on large screens positioned on either side of Biden who made the announcement of the US-Britain-Australia agreement from the White House.
When it was time to thank his collaborators, Biden got into some trouble remembering Morrison’s name.
Biden first thanked Johnson, referring to him by name, before blanking on Morrison.
He said: “Thank you, Boris and... and I want to thank that fellow Down Under. Thank you very much, pal. Appreciate it, Mr Prime Minister.”
Morrison was seen giving a thumbs-up back to Biden, who later recovered and went on to use his name in his remarks on the deal that will equip Australia with nuclear-powered submarines.
The gaffe was surprisingly well-received among many Australians whose voter confidence in their PM has plummeted in recent months.
A tweet from one Twitter account read: “when you wake up to videos of Biden calling Scott Morrison ‘that fellow down under’ and Boris Johnson referring to him as ‘Prime Minister Morris’, you know it’s going to be a good day.”
when you wake up to videos of Biden calling Scott Morrison ‘that fellow down under’ and Boris Johnson referring to him as ‘Prime Minister Morris’, you know it’s going to be a good day.
— cheekmediaco (@cheekmediaco) September 15, 2021
"... that fellow Down Under." ... 😏 pic.twitter.com/VTmrICTEu0
— 🕯 Baroness the Lady Bucket 🕯 (@Dramfire) September 15, 2021
"That fellow Down Under."
— Tom Heath (@tomdheath) September 15, 2021
Delicious. #auspol pic.twitter.com/aakKRXpgdD
Joe Biden just called our #Australian prime minister “ that fellow from down under”, 😂😂😂 I laughed, he meant Scott Morrison. I will use this title from now on #ThatFellowFromDownUnder 👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/TtRjAe8UT6
— AussieDebPeace (@AussieDebPeace) September 15, 2021
We’ve all been there, haven’t we?
