The 80-year-old president’s signoff confounded listeners, including journalists in the room at the University of Hartford’s campus in Connecticut.
Later Friday, deputy White House press secretary Olivia Dalton told reporters that Biden “was commenting to someone in the crowd,” without further clarification.
“God Save the Queen” was the name of the British national anthem under Queen Elizabeth II, as well as a customary nationalistic statement during her 70-year reign. She died in September and was succeeded by her son, Charles III, reverting the anthem and royalist motto to “God Save the King.”