Gaffe-prone Biden delivers another one

Is the escalating tension between the US-led NATO and Russia over Ukraine and other messy affairs getting to US President Joe Biden who called a reporter a ‘son of a b***h’ in public only to apologise later, writes ETV Bharat's Sanjib Kr Baruah

New Delhi: In what can be considered a rarity, the White House released a transcript of Joe Biden’s interactions with the Press on Monday which recorded the US President calling a reporter a ‘son of a b***h’ begging the often-asked question if the 79-year-old is losing it? Admittedly, the present US administration has not had it easy with the painfully chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in June 2021 soon after Biden assumed office on January 20, 2021 and now increasingly being straddled with the blowing crisis over Ukraine compelling more active military involvement yet again.

On Monday in the White House, Fox News reporter Peter Doocy had asked the President if he though inflation is a political liability. Replying with obvious sarcasm and perhaps unaware that the microphone was still on, Biden said: “No, it’s a great asset. More inflation. What a stupid son of a b***h.” The comment made it to the White House transcript that is released publicly. Doocy appeared on TV saying that the President later called him up on his mobile phone within an hour of the unsavoury exchange to “clear the air” over his rude comment and also saying that it was “nothing personal”.

For quite some time, Biden has been called out for his utterances that have bordered on the bizarre.

On Sunday, the US government ordered the evacuation of embassy staff from Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Sunday with the strong possibility of an all-out war breaking out with the Russians amassing about 1,00,000 soldiers and huge military hardware along the Russian-Ukraine border. As opposed to Biden’s legendary bumbling blunders, Russian President Vladimir Putin is known to be of much calmer disposition and cool temperament.

A measure of the Russian President can be obtained if one looks at the way he handled a riotous situation on December 5, 1989, in East Germany’s Dresden, a few weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Even as a vicious crowd surrounded the Dresden headquarters of the Soviet secret service, the KGB, after having stormed the local headquarters of the Stasi, the East German secret police, a man emerged from inside the KGB office and told the crowd: “Don't try to force your way into this property. My comrades are armed, and they're authorised to use their weapons in an emergency.”

Intimidated by the medium-sized man with his coolly delivered threats, the crowd withdrew. That KGB officer was Vladimir Putin.

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