US President Joe Biden ‘tone deaf’ on Northern Ireland, says DUP MP Gregory Campbell

East Londonderry MP Gregory Campbell said: “It’s up to President Biden to decide whether sweeping and inaccurate generalisations are helpful. However, it certainly highlights a tone deaf approach to Northern Ireland.”

Mr Campbell pointed out the president’s gaffe-prone mistakes, from his inability to react initially to the American evacuation of Kabul last summer to confusing Ukrainians with Iranians in his ‘State of the Union’ address in March.

In a slip-up during his speech to the US Congress, President Biden said: “Putin may circle Kyiv with tanks, but he will never gain the hearts and souls of the Iranian people.”

On President Biden’s attempt to draw parallels with Irish Catholics over 400 years of British rule, and the Palestinians, Mr Campbell said: “These particular comments of course may not even make it into the top three gaffes by the president during his Middle East trip.

“It is notable, however, that each of these incidents appears to generate decreasing levels of media attention. That is perhaps the most telling indictment of how the president is viewed both at home and further afield.”

The DUP MP added: “At least on this occasion however he didn’t read out ‘End of Quote. Repeat the line’ when he was speaking.”

Mr Biden made the comparison while on a trip to Arab East Jerusalem Hospital last week during his Middle Eastern tour of Israel and Saudi Arabia.

He said: “My background and the background of my family is Irish American, and we have a long history of – not fundamentally unlike the Palestinian people with Great Britain and their attitude towards Irish Catholics over the years, for 400 years.”

In his speech the president also went on to quote Seamus Heaney’s poem ‘The Cure at Troy’, which although he said was “classically Irish”, it “could fit Palestinians”.

Earlier this year an ABC News/Washington Post opinion poll found that 54% of Americans didn’t believe Mr Biden has the “mental sharpness it takes to serve effectively as president”.