'Is Joe's Dementia Contagious?' Blinken Confuses Runaway Afghan President Ghani With Karzai - Video

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled for the UAE as the Taliban* reached the gates of Kabul on 15 August and subsequently seized the city without a fight. Ghani claimed he ran away to prevent bloodshed if the group were to attack the capital. He has vowed to return to Afghanistan in the future in order to provide "justice" for all Afghan nationals.

Just like his boss Joe Biden, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken seems to be having trouble with getting names right. As he was speaking about the escape of Ashraf Ghani to the UAE, he recalled a phone call he had had with the Afghan president just a day before Taliban fighters reached Kabul.

But instead of saying that he'd had a conversation with the now-deposed Ghani, he mistakenly referred to his predecessor, Hamid Karzai, who served as the president of Afghanistan from 2001 to 2014.

"Go back a week. The government fell. And by the way, I was on the phone with President Karzai the day before, when he was telling me his intent, as he put it, 'to fight to the death'. Well, the next day, he was gone", Blinken said on CBS' "Face the Nation". 

Secretary of State Blinken refers to Afghanistan’s most recent president as Hamid Karzai.

Afghanistan’s most recent president is Ashraf Ghani.

Karzai was president from 2001 to 2014. pic.twitter.com/JmTZN4o83u

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 22, 2021

As the video with the name blunder went viral, Blinken was immediately ridiculed on social media, with many users suggesting that "Biden's dementia is contagious".

Either Biden’s dementia is contagious or him and Biden have same girlfriend 😜

— GretaBrainbug (@Fairlov75825859) August 23, 2021

Maybe Joe's dementia is contagious.

— TribeGirl419 BA, JD (@TribeGirl419) August 22, 2021

So, Joe Biden is not the only clueless one in the administration...but we already knew that. F'ing frightening.

— AngryConservative (@Oliver_Murray15) August 22, 2021

A VERY telling slip.
Puppet governments are not too relevant, are they ?

— Arturius Jopollee (@Jopollee) August 22, 2021

This administration is beyond dysfunctional, the adults are back huh?

— Travis Lourie (@Travadelic) August 22, 2021

CNN earlier reported, citing a former senior official in Ghani's cabinet, that the president and his aides were surprised by the Taliban's rapid advances and siege of Kabul, as they were working on a deal to "hand over peacefully to an inclusive government", as well as Ghani's resignation.

"In the days leading up to the Taliban coming to Kabul, we had been working on a deal with the US to hand over peacefully to an inclusive government and for President Ghani to resign. These talks were underway when the Taliban came into the city. The Taliban entering Kabul city from multiple points was interpreted by our intelligence as hostile advances", the source said.

President Ashraf Ghani fled the country as the Taliban completed the takeover of Afghanistan by entering the capital on 15 August. Ghani, who is currently in the UAE, declared that he intends to return to Afghanistan in the near future in order to provide "justice" for all Afghan nationals.

*The Taliban is a terrorist group banned in Russia and many other countries.