President Joe Biden whispered, he walked on stage and he used that now-famous phrase “down dog facing soldier pony” while answering questions Sunday night in Hanoi, Vietnam, from a roster of reporters.
After spending two days in India for the G20 leaders’ summit, Biden flew to Vietnam on Sunday to strengthen diplomatic ties between the two countries and ended the day with a press conference.
In what was meant to be a show of endurance — Biden is touring the world in five days — the 80-year-old commander in chief joked that he didn’t know whether it was morning or evening and ended the 26-minute event by saying, “I’m going to bed.”
He regaled reporters with a story he said was from a John Wayne movie and about the “Indians” – not the ones he just met – who don’t believe it when a soldier of the Union says “everything will be fine” if they go back. upon reservation.
“And the Indian looks at John Wayne, points to the Union soldier and says, ‘He’s a lying dog-faced pony soldier.’ Well, there are a lot of lying dog-faced pony soldiers about global warming. But not anymore,” Biden said. “All of a sudden they all realize there’s a problem,” the president said, whispering into the microphone.
President Joe Biden held a news conference in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Sunday evening after spending two days in India for the G20 leaders’ summit. At the press conference, he told reporters about a John Wayne film featuring “Indians” to make the case for climate change.
President Joe Biden grabbed the microphone and left the podium at one point to speak to a reporter standing on one side of the room.
The president was asked if he was concerned about the lack of a deal on fossil fuels coming out of the G20 leaders’ summit in New Delhi.
He used “lying dog-faced pony soldier,” once during a 2020 campaign event in New Hampshire and at an event in Connecticut in June, where he also muttered, “God save the queen, man.”
Sunday’s bizarre moment came during a news conference that started more than an hour late and was kicked off by the president acknowledging that his aides had told him who he would call.
“They gave me five people here,” Biden said, returning to his custom of calling from the list and speaking apologetically about it.
“I’m just following my orders here,” he said at another point, as he looked down his list to call another news agency or another name, as reporters in the audience shouted and frantically waved their hands to be called.
The questions were heavily focused on China and Biden failed to answer the questions when they were asked on another issue – so he didn’t address the issue of Russia and North Korea doing business together , nor Ukraine’s dissatisfaction with the G20 declaration on the war, which did not name. Russia as aggressor.
The choice of reporter also appears to have caused Biden to mostly ignore a group of U.S. print and television journalists who were preparing to address national concerns such as his low poll numbers due to his advanced age and a possible indictment of his son, Hunter, on gun charges. charge.
These polls show widespread concern about his age as a second term approaches, with an AP-NORC poll last week showing that 77 percent of Americans, including 69 percent of Democrats, think Biden East too old to run for office.
A Wall Street Journal poll released Monday had similar results, with 73 percent of voters saying Biden is too old to run again, including two-thirds of Democrats.
White House aides pointed to the whirlwind trip as proof that Biden is up to the task.
“It’s evening, isn’t it?” Biden broke down at the start of the press conference.
“This trip around the world in five days is interesting,” he also noted.
He later joked that the schedule was “no problem.”
‘I can imagine. It’s evening, I want to remind you,” a BBC journalist joked to the president.
At one point, Biden grabbed the microphone and started walking.
He walked toward the side of the stage where one of the five chosen reporters was standing, but that briefly gave the impression that he was abandoning the press conference.
Every journalist on the list was a woman, which was not lost on a reporter from the independent, US-backed Voice of America.
‘Thank you Mr President. I hope you didn’t think calling only on women would get you softballs tonight, she told him.
Biden said that was not the case.
‘Oh, I know better than that. If you threw me a softball, I wouldn’t know what to do with it. I’d probably do even worse,” Biden joked.
After Biden answered one of two questions asked of him by VOA, he told reporters: “I tell you what, I don’t know about you, but I’m going to bed.”
But the journalists in the audience kept shouting questions, then press officer Karine Jean-Pierre intervened.
‘Thank you all. This ends the press conference. Thank you everyone,” she said.
As the president attempted to answer a few more questions, loud jazz music began playing over him, prompting Biden to leave the stage — and go to bed.
