Joe Biden Calls Putin 'Crazy SOB,' Kremlin Calls Biden 'Hollywood Cowboy' Just Like ... Reagan?

Well OK, if you're going to flatter him.

Image generated using Substack’s AI, edited in Photoshop. Actually got a normal number of fingers the first try! Gun still weird, and OK, index finger should be near if not on the trigger.

Joe Biden got his Irish up at a fundraiser in San Francisco last night, slamming Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “crazy SOB” who might launch a nuclear war, and also condemning Donald Trump’s bizarre comparisons of himself to murdered Russian democracy advocate Alexander Navalny. It was the Fightin’ Mad Joe Biden we like so much — not itching for a fight, but justifiably angry at dangerous belligerence from one world leader and flat out inane rhetoric from the former “president.”

While much of the talk focused on the challenges of confronting climate change, Biden castigated Putin in an aside as yet another threat the US faces, telling a gathering of about 20 big-time donors, “We have a crazy SOB, that guy Putin, others, and we always have to be worried about a nuclear conflict. But the existential threat to humanity is climate.” Biden also called Putin, accurately, a “butcher” and war criminal.” It was a private fundraiser, so there doesn’t appear to be any video of his comments.

Biden went on to express disbelief that Trump, the putative former leader of the free world, would compare his criminal legal troubles — what Trump brought on himself by doing crimes — to Navalny’s murder by Trump’s pal Putin:

You listen to some of the things the — this fellow has been saying, like he’s comparing himself to Navalny and saying that he — because our country has become a communist country because it’s persecuting him, just like Navalny was persecuted.  I don’t know where the hell this comes from. […]

I mean, think — if I stood here — if I stood here 10, 15 years ago and said any of this, you’d all think I — I should be committed. 

The Kremlin was not pleased, which is just fine, because that was rather Biden’s point. Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Biden was trying to sound like a “Hollywood cowboy,” harkening back to the Cold War rhetoric the Kremlin used to reserve for Ronald Reagan, so that was a nice nostalgic touch.

Peskov added:

“The use of such language against the head of another state by the president of the United States is unlikely to infringe on our president, President Putin. […] But it debases those who use such vocabulary.”

We’ll assume that was accompanied by little harrumphing sounds, or whatever “harrumph” is in Russian. (“хмыканье,” says the Google machine, though that translates back to English as “grunt.”)

Also too, speaking of feisty, enjoy this nice little segment from Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC last night taking the horse-race press to task for dumb questions like “Does Gavin need to stand by?” as if Biden’s trip to California means he’s going to drop out for being OLD.

O’Donnell challenged the pundits calling to dump Biden (and Kamala Harris, because they’re jerks) to provide their chosen substitute candidate and to identify a clear path for how that person would miraculously win the nomination by universal acclamation. Oh yes, and where would this magic “Generic Democrat” get anything like the funding Biden does?

And no, you may not fantasize that an un-assassinated Bobby Kennedy will appear by magic to prevent a 1968-style Nixon-Humphrey blowout.

Enjoy! And that’s a LID! By which we mean your OPEN THREAD!

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Trump Being Persecuted Just Like Navalny, Minus The Poisoning And Mysterious Death

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[White House transcript / NBC News / The Last Word on YouTube]

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