Joe Biden forced to apologise after fiery spat with CNN reporter in press conference

US President Joe Biden offered an apology after furiously snapping at a CNN reporter. During a press conference in Geneva, President Biden was asked by a reporter why he was confident he would be able to convince Russian President Vladimir Putin to change his actions. President Biden then erupted at the reporter and insisted he had never said he was confident about being able to change anything to do with President Putin. 

Mr Biden later spoke to the media after the encounter and insisted he was sorry for behaving like a “wise guy.” 

The reporter asked: “Why are you so confident Vladimir Putin will change his behaviour Mr President?

President Biden furiously retorted: “I am not confident he will change his behaviour.

“What the hell, what do you do all the time?

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“When did I say I was confident?

“I said, what I said was, let us get it straight, I said what would change their behaviour is if the rest of the world reacts to them and diminishes their standing in the world.

“I am not confident of anything, I am just stating a fact.”

The reporter then questioned whether it was likely Vladimir Putin would change based on his past actions.

She said: “But given his past behaviour has not changed and in that press conference after sitting down with you for several hours he denied any involvement in cyber-attacks.

“He also downplayed human rights abuses, he even refused to say Alexei Navalny’s name.

“How does that account to a constructive meeting with President Vladimir Putin?”

Before walking off President Biden said: “If you don’t understand that, it is your own business.”

 

Later on, before boarding Air Force One, The President expressed regret at his actions.

He said: “I owe my questioner an apology.

“I shouldn’t have been such a wise guy with the last answer I gave.

“To be a good reporter you have got to be negative, you have got to have a negative view of life, it seems to me.

“You never ask positive questions.

“Me and Vladimir Putin have an agreement to work on a major arms control agreement.

“I started working on control agreements back in the Cold War, if we can do one in the Cold War, why can’t we do one now? We will see.”

source: express.co.uk