Biden Appears to Forget His Own Defense Secretary’s Name in Interview

President Joe Biden attracted raised eyebrows on Wednesday after a clip aired of him referring in an interview to Lloyd Austin III as the “Black man”—having apparently blanked on his own defense secretary’s name.

The president, in a sitdown with Black Entertainment Television, was referring to his record in hiring Black people in his administration when the flub occurred. “It’s all about treating people with dignity,” Biden said. “For example, look at the heat I’m getting because I named a, uh, the secretary of defense, the Black man.”

When pressed for comment by reporters on Thursday, Sabrina Singh, a Pentagon spokesperson, twice repeated that Austin had “absolute confidence” in Biden and referred further questions to the White House, according to The New York Times.

A White House spokesperson referred The Daily Beast’s request for comment on the matter to the Biden campaign, who did not immediately respond.

Calls for Biden to step aside and allow a new nominee to take his place in the presidential race have only intensified in the weeks since his disastrous debate performance.

Late Wednesday, CNN reported that the president had become “receptive” to those pleas, a reported about-face from his repeated public refusals to exit the race.

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