BIDEN THE PERFORMER GETS PANNED – OVERNIGHT:    Okay, so he's not Lincoln.  Okay, so he's not Reagan.  Okay, so he's not Laurence Olivier.  The problem is, what is President Biden?  No one can quite figure it out, but a tiger on the world stage he is not. 

He refused to hold a joint press conference with Vladimir Putin after their summit conference today, and maybe that's all to the better.  Putin, about whom nothing good can be said, at least cuts a dynamic figure.  From Daily Mail: 

President Joe Biden said he stressed the importance of free speech during his summit with Vladimir Putin before taking questions from another list of pre-approved reporters in Geneva on Wednesday.  

In his description of their sit down, Biden emphasized the American commitment to human rights and said: 'I also raised the ability of Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty to operate, and the importance of a free press and freedom of speech'. 

'I'll take your questions and as usual, folks, they gave me a list of the people I'm going to call on,' he then said at his press conference after finishing talks with the Russian president. In a separate press conference, Putin picked which reporters he would be taking questions from.

Biden also mistakenly referred to Putin as Trump, before quickly correcting himself, and ended the series of  questions by shouting at CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins. 

She yelled out a question asking why he was so confident the Russian strongman would change his behavior, given his denials and his history.  

'I’m not confident I’ll change his behavior. What do you do all the time?' he sneered. 

Biden walked up to the reporter, with his suit jacket off on an unusually hot day, and accused her of not knowing her business.  

'When did I say I was confident?  I said … What I said was – let’s get it straight,' Biden said. '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 facts.'

The latest remarks come days after he said he would 'get in trouble' with his staff if he didn't take questions from certain reporters.  

During his stern comments on Wednesday, Biden says he warned Putin that Russian cyber attacks on 'critical' U.S. infrastructure would draw a serious American response – and told his counterpart just how harmful a cyber attack might be on an oil pipeline that is the lifeline of the Russian economy.

Biden threatened retaliation and made his comment publicly even as he denied making any kind of a 'threat' in his meetings with the Russian president as they discussed ransomware attacks that shut down Colonial pipeline and has other U.S. and multinational businesses on edge.  

In separate, back-to-back press conferences after their sit down, both leaders expressed satisfaction with the outcome of their meeting and described their conversations in positive terms. 

COMMENT:  The general feeling is that Biden got nothing from Putin, and Putin got a chance to strut on a world stage, without too much opposition.  Advantage:  Putin. 

Not exactly a Reagan outcome.

June 16, 2021