President Joe Biden has turned down a debate challenge from Russian President Vladimir Putin after being called for labeling Putin a “killer” with no “soul,” in a massive optical foreign relations defeat for the Biden administration.
The New York Post reported Thursday that White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki immediately shut down any prospects of a Biden-Putin debate.
“I don’t have anything to report to you in terms of a future meeting. The president will, of course, be in Georgia tomorrow and quite busy,” Psaki said.
As National File reported Thursday afternoon, Putin’s response to the Biden “killer” comments dealt a serious verbal counterpunch to the U.S. President.
“I remember in my childhood, when we argued in the courtyard with each other we used to say: it takes one to know one,” Putin said.
Putin went on to challenge the gaffe-prone and socially awkward Biden, 78, to a publicly live streamed debate without moderators to guide the U.S. President:
President Vladimir Putin has challenged U.S. President to a televised live debate, calling the bluff of the man who accused him of being “a killer” who doesn’t have “a soul.” The move seems calculated to expose President Biden’s biggest public relations weak point: his inability to speak publicly in a coherent sentence.
“I’ve just thought of this now, I want to propose to President Biden to continue our discussion, but on the condition that we do it basically live, as it’s called,” Putin told a Russian state television reporter.
“Without any delays and directly in an open, direct discussion,” Putin added. “It seems to me that would be interesting for the people of Russia and for the people of the United States.”
It’s unclear what activities Psaki referred to that will be keeping Biden “quite busy” over the next few days, as many of his presidential duties have been delegated to Vice President Kamala Harris.
Harris has taken over the role of speaking to world leaders from Biden, who goes to bed very noticeably earlier than his predecessors at 7 p.m.
