Biden calls Putin a 'crazy SOB'
US President Joe Biden referred to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, as a "crazy SOB" (meaning "crazy son of a bitch") at the San Francisco fundraiser for his 2024 reelection campaign on Wednesday. The event was attended by a small group of reporters, DW said.
Biden was talking about climate change when he said, "We have a crazy SOB like this guy Putin and others, and we always have to worry about nuclear conflict, but the existential threat to humanity is climate."
On Tuesday, Biden said the US would announce a package of tough new sanctions against Russia on Friday over the death in prison of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Moscow responded, saying Biden's insult only served to debase the United States.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the use of such vocabulary was a poor attempt to appear like a "Hollywood cowboy."
"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," Peskov said.