President Joe Biden mistakenly referred to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, D-Mich., as "Jennifer" on Wednesday during a virtual event related to the infrastructure package, the Detroit Free Press reported.
"Thank you, Jennifer, for what you've done," Biden told Whitmer, after she thanked the president for his leadership in winning Senate passage of a $1-trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill.
Whitmer had been on Biden’s short list of potential running mates last year.
During her 2018 campaign, Whitmer was called "Jennifer" by Republican opponent Bill Schuette in an apparent slip of the tongue, the Free Press reported.
"Learn my name," Whitmer told Schuette, who apparently was thinking of Michigan's first female governor, Jennifer Granholm, who now serves as Biden’s energy secretary.
The Free Press said Biden had called Whitmer "Gretchen" earlier in the program.
"I can’t fault Biden for this, because I’ve thought “Gov. Granholm” once in a while, too. But he should be calling her 'Governor' as an honorific, not by her first name," tweeted Micheline Maynard, a contributing columnist for The Washington Post.
The slip-up by Biden, 78, was not his first as president. He erroneously called Vice President Kamala Harris "president" in March during a speech regarding vaccinations.
"This is really important," Biden said at the time. "Because we believe in speed and efficiency must be matched with fairness and equity. Now, when President Harris took a virtual tour of a vaccination center in Arizona not long ago, one of the nurses on that tour — injecting people, giving vaccinations, said that each shot was like administering a dose of hope."
In June, Biden wrongly said "COVID deaths are up" despite the U.S. experiencing a 20% decrease in COVID-19 cases and a 14% drop in COVID-related deaths during he two-week period before the president's remarks.
In March, Biden stumbled several times while walking quickly up the stairs of Air Force One as the plane idled at Joint Base Andrews.
Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, a former White House physician, said several times late last month that Biden needed a cognitive test.
"He's lost. He's confused. He can BARELY put a sentence together. Go to http://testbiden.com NOW to DEMAND he have a cognitive exam!," Jackson tweeted.
Neither the White House nor Whitmer's office had responded with comment to the Washington Examiner about Wednesday's call.
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