Former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin mocked Vice President Biden on Thursday over his gaffe referring to Africa as a nation while addressing heads of state earlier in the week.
{mosads}”Can you imagine a vice president not knowing that Africa is a continent, not a nation?” Palin quipped on Facebook along with a photo of her and Biden shaking hands at the 2008 vice presidential debate in St. Louis.
“Think of how embarrassing this could be for our country if this Vice President actually referred to Africa as a ‘nation’ while speaking to the very leaders of the sovereign nations that make up the diverse African continent,” Palin wrote.
Biden made the error when speaking to leaders at the U.S.-Africa summit on Monday.
“There’s no reason the nation of Africa cannot and should not join the ranks of the world’s most prosperous nations in the near term, in the decades ahead,” Biden said in a speech urging the African leaders to fight corruption.
Referring to Africa as a country has tripped up others.
On Wednesday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) tweeted that she was excited to “discuss the valuable relationship between our two countries” at the summit, later correcting the tweet to read “between the U.S. and Africa.”
Palin herself has been ridiculed in the past for allegedly thinking Africa was a country.
After the 2008 elections, aides for Sen. John McCain told news media the vice-presidential candidate did not know Africa was a continent and asked if South Africa was just a part of the country.