President Joe Biden called Russian President Vladimir Putin “a crazy S.O.B.” in a fundraiser Wednesday in San Francisco, according to the pool reporters traveling with the US president.
“We have a crazy S.O.B. that guy, Putin, others. And we always have to be worried about a nuclear conflict. But the existential threat to humanity is climate,” Biden told those gathered at the fundraiser.
Biden also criticized former President Donald Trump’s comments likening his legal troubles to the death of Russian opposition leader and Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny. The president paraphrased his predecessor’s comments before telling the attendees that “if I stood here 10 to 15 years ago and said all this, you’d all think I should be committed.”
“He’s comparing himself to Navalny and saying that because our country’s become a communist country, he was persecuted, just like Navalny was persecuted. Where the hell does this comes from,” Biden said, according to reporters in the room. “If I stood here 10 to 15 years ago and said all this, you’d all think I should be committed. … It’s astounding.”
In stark contrast to Biden and other Western leaders, Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential front-runner, has yet to condemn Russia or Putin for Navalny’s death.
In recent weeks, Trump has also indicated several times that he would not defend a NATO country from a Russian attack if the country doesn’t meet spending guidelines on defense — a comment Biden slammed as an “admission that he intends to give Putin a green light for more war and violence”
Trump “is making it clear that he will abandon our NATO allies,” Biden added following the former president’s comments earlier this month.
Biden was introduced at Wednesday’s fundraiser…
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