President Biden received a standing ovation after telling Irish leaders he wanted to “lick the world” with them during a banquet at Dublin Castle on Thursday evening.
“There’s nothing, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart — there’s nothing our nations can’t achieve if we do it together. I really mean it,” the president told a large group at dinner.
“So, thank you all. God bless you all. And let’s go — let’s go la- — lick the world. Let’s get it done. Thank you,” Biden said, according to the White House’s transcription of the speech.
The remark was followed by applause and a standing ovation from the crowd.
According to the Cambridge online dictionary, an alternate definition of “licking” includes “to defeat easily in a competition, fight, etc.” However, Biden’s comment was interpreted differently by online users.
Twitter users were perplexed after the unusual comment, posting “huh” and “what” on videos of the speech circulating online.
“The gift that just keeps giving,” several users wrote.
“How is this real?” one commented.
The dinner took place just hours after a video of Biden getting barked at by the president of Ireland’s dog, Misneach, also made its rounds
The president’s latest gaffe came just days after he accidentally mixed up the All Blacks, a New Zealand rugby team, with the Black and Tans, a British police force group known for its brutal occupation of Ireland in the 1920s.
“This was given to me by one of these guys, right here,” Biden said at the Windsor Bar in Dundalk on Wednesday, referring to the tie he was wearing. “He was a hell of a rugby player. He beat the hell out of the Black and Tans.”
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