Humiliating moment Joe Biden mispronounces name of the UK’s new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in congratulatory speech
Joe Biden on Monday hailed the expected appointment of Britain’s first non-white prime minister as a ‘groundbreaking milestone,’ but failed to pronounce his name correctly.
Biden, speaking at a White House event to mark the Indian holiday of Diwali, said Rishi Sunak, who is also of Indian descent, is expected to be named prime minister today after seeing King Charles.
But the President stumbled over Sunak’s name, making several failed attempts before calling him ‘Rashee Sanook‘ – the latest in a long line of gaffes that will only fuel widespread speculation of his declining mental state.
Sunak, a 42-year-old multimillionaire former hedge fund boss, will become the country’s youngest leader in modern times and its third in less than two months as his Conservative Party endures a period of considerable turmoil.
His family migrated to Britain from India in the 1960s, a period when many people from Britain’s former colonies moved to the country to help it rebuild after World War Two.
‘We’ve got news that [Rishi Sunak] is now the prime minister,’ Biden said. ‘A groundbreaking milestone, and it matters.’
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden would call Sunak in the coming days, noting that it was protocol for the U.S. president to wait to offer his congratulations until after an incoming British prime minister had met with the monarch and been formally invited to form a new government.