Russian to anger
Biden sorry for snapping at reporter
As U.S. President Joe Biden turned to walk off the stage following a news conference in Geneva after his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a reporter shouted one final question.
“Why are you so confident (Putin) will change his behaviour, Mr. President?” CNN's Kaitlan Collins asked.
The president, who had turned away from the clutch of journalists, threw up his hands and started back toward the reporters while wagging his finger.
“What the hell? ... When did I say I was confident?” Biden said as he headed back toward Collins before launching into a tense back-andforth with the reporter, while defending his approach with the Russian president.
Biden's flash of frustration briefly revived memories of president Donald Trump's frequent heated exchanges with the White House press corps, though Biden's staid summit with Putin was in stark contrast to the deference Trump brought to his interactions with the Russian leader.
As his exchange with Collins went viral, some critics jumped to defend the reporter, while others argued her question unfairly reflected the president's earlier statements.
Soon after, Biden issued a mea culpa for his tone.
“I owe my last questioner an apology,” he told reporters on the tarmac Wednesday as he readied to board Air Force One. “I shouldn't have been such a wise guy with the last answer I gave.”
Biden and Putin met Wednesday in their first summit to discuss several topics, including alleged cyberattacks and human rights violations that have strained relations between Russia and the U.S. After, Biden characterized the meeting as “positive” and Putin called it “constructive.”
But Collins pushed back on those claims.
After she shouted her question to Biden, the president said she was mischaracterizing his stance.
“I said what will change their behaviour is if the rest of the world reacts to them and it diminishes their standing in the world,” Biden said after snapping at her.
“I'm not confident of anything. I'm just stating the facts.”
Collins pressed the president again, asking why the meeting, which lasted about three hours, should be viewed as constructive when Putin later played down human rights abuses and denied Russia played a role in cyberattacks against the U.S.
“If you don't understand that, you're in the wrong business,” Biden said.