President Joe Biden falsely claimed at the White House on Friday that 350 million Americans have been vaccinated, twice bungling his statistics after looking at his notes.
“You know, we have roughly 350 million people vaccinated in the United States and billions around the world,” Biden said after looking at his note card provided by White House staff.
Approximately 165 million Americans have been fully vaccinated, according to the latest numbers from the Centers for Disease Control. Currently, 349 million vaccine shots have been administered.
But Biden made the same mistake after looking at his notes again.
“I said, well over … what is the number again? I have to remind myself. … 350 million Americans have already been vaccinated,” he said.
There are only about 328.2 million Americans in the United States, according to the latest Census Bureau estimates.
Biden spoke at the White House before leaving for his home in Delaware for the weekend, wearing a tan suit.
The president repeatedly pleaded for Americans to get vaccinated, warning that the Delta variant of the virus is threatening the economy.
He also blamed Americans refusing to get the vaccine for the recent coronavirus deaths.
“Today about 400 people will die because of the Delta variant in this country,” he said. “A tragedy–because virtually all of these deaths were preventable if people had gotten vaccinated.”