Biden drops his melting ice cream bar after being smuggled into Harvard for surprise appearance
By Natalie O'Neill
Published April 17, 2025, 11:57 a.m. ET
Former President Joe Biden was smuggled into Harvard University for a surprise appearance Wednesday — during which he clumsily dropped his ice cream bar on the floor and mistakenly referred to Ukraine as Iraq.
The 82-year-old’s discussion with roughly 50 students at the Ivy League school’s Institute of Politics was marked by embarrassing blunders similar to those that plagued his disastrous and short-lived 2024 re-election campaign, the Harvard Crimson reported.
Former President Joe Biden’s secret appearance at Harvard was marked by blunders. @ke11yb/Instagram
During his remarks, Biden accidentally referred to Ukraine as Iraq while discussing Russia’s three-year-old invasion of its European neighbor, prompting his longtime senior adviser Mike Donilon — now a resident fellow at the institute — to correct him.
The 46th president then bit into a melting ice cream bar that plopped onto the floor after the talk, the student newspaper reported.
During the invite-only appearance, Biden praised Harvard officials for refusing the Trump administration’s demands to change policies in a bid to curb rampant antisemitism on campus — including dismantling all diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and stepping up its admissions screening of international students to “prevent admitting students hostile to the American values.”
Following Harvard’s refusal, the administration announced a freeze on $2.2 billion in multi-year grants and $60 million in multi-year contracts.
“Harvard stepped up in a way no one else has. You should be really thankful,” Biden told the students Wednesday.
As the former president spoke, pro-Palestinian protesters who caught wind of his secret appearance could be heard outside the event banging drums and chanting, “Biden, Biden, you can’t hide. You’re committing genocide,” according to the Crimson.
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https://nypost.com/2025/04/17/us-news/biden-drops-his-melting-ice-cream-bar-after-being-smuggled-into-harvard-to-make-surprise-appearance/
