Biden confuses Afghan people with the country’s currency
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Joe Biden’s propensity for verbal gaffes haunted the US president again after he referred to Afghans as “Afghanis” – the country’s currency.
The slip was noticed by Idrees Ali, a Pentagon correspondent with the Reuters news agency.
He voiced his irritation on Twitter - see below.
If I had an Afghani for every time President Biden called Afghans “Afghanis,” I would have five Afghanis.
— Idrees Ali (@idreesali114) August 22, 2021
Others joined in, with Eric Nelson, a biomedical researcher, suggesting that the term Afghani was in fact offensive.
David Fielder, a military officer, added: “It grates on my nerve. Like fingernails on a chalkboard.”
It was just the latest unfortunate slip of the tongue by the 78-year-old president, which has led Republican critics to question whether he still has the capacity to serve in the Oval Office.
Mr Biden, who has struggled with a stutter all his life, has admitted that he is a “gaffe machine”.
As Biden verbal faux-pas go, this was hardly the most heinous offence, with at least one dictionary suggesting that the term could be used to describe people from Afghanistan.
However another more common use of the term Afghani is to describe a much sought-after strain of cannabis.
