Biden clashes with CNN reporter at summit press conference
As he was leaving his press conference after meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Biden had a tense exchange with CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins, who asked why Biden was confident that Putin would change his behavior. Biden turned around to address Collins with a raised finger. Responding to her follow-up question about whether or not the summit was constructive, Biden said, "If you don't understand that, you're in the wrong business." He later told reporters that he owed an apology to Collins and he "shouldn’t have been such a wise guy with the last answer I gave."
Video transcript
- What did Putin say about Paul Whelan and Trevor Reed? What did he say about Paul Whelan and Trevor Reed?
- Say it again. We can't hear you.
JOE BIDEN: I said the families of the detained Americans came up, and we discussed it. We're going to follow through with that discussion. I am-- I am not going to walk away on that.
KAITLAN COLLINS: Why are you so confident he'll change his behavior, Mr President?
JOE BIDEN: Yeah, I'm not confident he'll change his behavior. What the hell-- what do you all the time?
KAITLAN COLLINS: So--
JOE BIDEN: When did I say I was confident? I said-- I said--
KAITLAN COLLINS: You said in the next six months, you'd be able to determine--
JOE BIDEN: What I said was-- let's get this straight. I said, what will change their behavior is if the rest of the world reacts to them and it diminishes their standing in the world. I'm not confident of anything. I'm just stating the fact.
KAITLAN COLLINS: But given his past behavior has not changed, and in that press conference after sitting down with you for several hours, he denied any involvement in cyber attacks. He downplayed human rights abuses. He refused to say Alexei Navalny's name. So how does that account to a constructive meeting, as President Putin phrased it.
JOE BIDEN: If you don't understand that, you're in the wrong business.
- Is the summit with China--
