Joe Biden tells crowd he recently met with former French president who died in 1996

Joe Biden has told a crowd that he recently met with Francois Mitterrand, but there’s a glaring issue with that story.

US President Joe Biden told a crowd in Las Vegas on Sunday that he recently met with Francois Mitterrand, the French President who has been dead for nearly 30 years.

The comments came while Mr Biden was warning of the dangers of a potential second Donald Trump presidency, as he aimed to shore up enthusiasm ahead of Tuesday’s Democratic primary in Nevada.

Mr Biden recounted a story he has told many times during his presidency, about a meeting he had with French President Emmanuel Macron during a G7 meeting in England, some months after Mr Biden had taken over the White House.

Joe Biden at a campaign rally in Nevada. Picture: Saul Loeb/AFP

“I sat down and I said, ‘America’s back,’” Mr Biden recalled. “And Mitterrand from Germany — I mean from France — looked at me and said …”

Mr Biden appeared to trail off before collecting his thoughts to finish the sentence, “Well, how long are you back for?”

WATCH: Joe Biden says he recently met with “Mitterand from Germany.”

Mitterand was the FRENCH President between 1981 and 1995.

He also died in 1996. pic.twitter.com/W0YPBDp69n

— Raheem. (@RaheemKassam) February 5, 2024

The President continued, saying the “Chancellor of Germany” asked him how he — and by extension, the US — would respond if, hypothetically, thousands of people stormed Britain’s House of Commons and killed two “bobbies”, or British police officers, to stop the election of a Prime Minister.

François Mitterrand was France’s president between 1981 and 1995. He died in 1996.

In Tuesday’s Nevada Democratic presidential primary, Mr Biden faces only token opposition from author Marianne Williamson and a few relatively unknown challengers.

Francois Mitterand, left, pictured in 1993. Picture: Supplied

He won Nevada in November 2020 by fewer than 3 percentage points. But he came to Nevada to rouse voters for the fall campaign as well.

The state known largely for its casino and hospitality industries is synonymous with split-ticket, hard-to-predict results.

It has a transient, working-class population and large Latino, Filipino and Chinese American and black communities.

Nevada has a stark rural-urban divide, with more than 88 per cent of active registered voters — and much of its political power — in the two most populous counties, which include the Las Vegas and Reno metro areas.

This article originally appeared on Fox News and was reproduced with permission

Originally published as Joe Biden tells crowd he recently met with former French president who died in 1996