President Joe Biden sees a host of malign influences challenging his 2024 reelection efforts, using a private fundraiser in San Francisco on Wednesday night to take swipes at Russian President Vladimir Putin, former President Donald Trump, and MAGA Republicans while ostensibly addressing “climate change.”
AP reports Biden called Putin a “crazy SOB” and took aim at Trump’s comments citing the Russian opposition leader who died last week in an Arctic prison.
Biden was talking about climate issues when he said, “We have a crazy SOB like Putin and others, and we always have to worry about nuclear conflict, but the existential threat to humanity is climate.”
Biden also said he was astounded by recent comments made by his likely Republican challenger.
Trump compared the suspicious prison death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny to his own legal troubles in the U.S. after he was fined $354.8 million plus approximately $100 million in pre-judgment interest on Friday after Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron ruled the former president had inflated his net worth in order get more favorable loan terms.
New York Attorney General Letitia James has since said she is prepared to seize Trump’s assets if he is unable to find cash to meet the penalty demand.
Trump said the ruling was a form of “communism or fascism.”
Biden expressed his surprise at the comparison, as the AP report set out:
Some of the things that this fellow’s been saying, like he’s comparing himself to Navalny and saying that — because our country’s become a communist country, he was persecuted, just like Navalny was persecuted. I don’t know where the hell this comes from.
I mean, if I stood here 10, 15 years ago and said any of this, you’d all think I should be committed. It astounds me.
“I’ve been around a long time and I’ve never quite seen a crowd like this MAGA Republican crowd,” Biden added, referring to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.
“They seem to have very little moral compass on what is important to people.”
Biden was in San Francisco as part of a three-day California swing to raise money for his 2024 reelection campaign.
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