Biden Lashes Out at CNN Reporter Following Summit with Putin

After the U.S.-Russia summit ended, President Biden finally addressed the press to outline the details of his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The press conference consisted of 11 minutes of him reading the teleprompter and only 20 minutes of fielding questions, which ultimately led to President Biden publicly apologizing to the press afterwards.

When CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins asked President Biden why he was so confident that Putin would change his behavior after their summit meeting, President Biden snapped back:

"What I said was, let’s get it straight. I said what will change their [Russia’s] behavior is if the rest of the world reacts to them and they diminish their standing in the world. I’m not confident of anything. I’m just stating the facts."

President Biden seemed to have taken it easy with Putin only to take out his frustration on a CNN reporter who was doing her job and asking tough questions. He then apologized to the press, while criticizing reporters for being too negative.

ACLJ Senior Advisor for National Security and Foreign Policy and former Acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell commented on his initial takeaway from President Biden’s press conference:

"Well first off, because I am a fair and balanced person, let me start by complimenting President Biden on two fronts. One – sending our ambassadors back is a very good step, the embassies have been open, but having the leaders back is good progress. And I also would say the second thing is he was very strong on confronting Putin on human rights. Both of those things are very good. But I don’t understand the media not getting this – they are all excited things went well and President Biden didn’t melt down and have some sort of a stumble, but the reality is if you’re President Putin why wouldn’t you be in a great mood? You got a pipeline. You got a pipeline that’s going to give cash and influence for the next 20-30 years. You can sit through some finger-wagging from the Western alliance because you can go home and count your cash through the pipeline. I don’t understand why we are missing this point."

President Biden also mentioned that he and Putin spent a great deal of time discussing cybersecurity, which isn’t surprising considering the recent Russian cyberattacks on major U.S. companies. President Biden then admitted that during these talks he gave Russia a list of 16 specific entities that are critical to our infrastructure – from the energy sector to our water systems – which should be considered “off limits” for Russia to attack. He essentially gave our adversary the most vulnerable areas and entities of the U.S. and handed them over for the rest of the world to see. The fact that President Biden and his staff didn’t see anything wrong with this is alarming.

During the press conference, President Biden was asked about what he has achieved to stop Russia from interfering in elections in the future. When he explained that it won’t happen again, he went on to add:

"How would it be if the United States were viewed by the rest of the world as interfering with the elections directly of other countries and everybody knew it? What would it be like if we engage in activities that he’s engaged in?"

He must have forgotten that when he was Vice President under former President Obama, the Obama Administration was caught red handed influencing Israeli politics. We filed a Freedom of Information (FOIA) lawsuit and uncovered that the Obama State Department used taxpayer dollars to fund anti-Israel organizations intent on unseating the government of Israel. The hypocrisy is sickening.

Overall, President Biden put the U.S. in a position of vulnerability with his weakness during his summit with Putin. Our allies and enemies watched his performance and are forming opinions on the strength and unity of the U.S. under this new Administration.

Today’s full Sekulow broadcast is complete with even more analysis of President Biden’s press conference following the U.S.-Russia summit.