US election campaign
Joe Biden calls Putin a “crazy bastard” in speech
US President Joe Biden does not particularly appreciate his Russian colleague Vladimir Putin.
© Yuri Gripas / AFP
US President Joe Biden actually wanted to speak about climate change at a campaign event. He took the liberty of taking a swipe at Vladimir Putin.
US President Joe Biden took a harsh swipe at the Russian president at a campaign event in the state of California Vladimir Putin allowed. At a speech in San Francisco on the West Coast on Wednesday evening, Biden described the Kremlin chief as a “crazy SOB,” according to press representatives traveling with him. The abbreviation “SOB” stands for “son of a bitch” in English, a swear word whose unflattering range of meanings extends widely: from “bastard”, “bitch” or “shithead” to the very literal and rather unusual translation “son of a bitch “.
Low opinion of Putin is well known
Biden has already called Putin a “butcher” and “war criminal” in the past. After the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Russian custody, Biden announced “significant” sanctions against Russia.
At the point of the speech, the US President actually spoke about climate change as an existential threat to humanity and only mentioned Putin in passing. In essence, he said that there are “crazy bastards” like Putin and that there is always the danger of a conflict involving nuclear weapons, but the real existential threat to humanity is climate change. The 81-year-old spoke to a small group of his campaign donors. At events like these, which are not broadcast live on television, Biden sometimes tends to speak more freely.
This isn’t the first time Joe Biden has cursed
The Democrat, who is hoping to secure a second term in November’s presidential election, has used the insult before. When a reporter asked the president a question on the sidelines of a public appearance in Washington in January 2022, Biden muttered, “What a stupid son of a bitch,” audible to all because his microphone was still on. The expression is quite common in the USA and is considered less vulgar compared to other insults.