Sign in

Joe Biden rushed for ‘nap’ after Vietnam press conference? ‘I’m going to bed’

Joe Biden In Vietnam: “I’ll just follow my orders here. Staff, is there anybody that hasn’t spoken yet? I ain’t calling on you,” Joe Biden said.

Updated on: Sep 11, 2023, 16:17:06 IST
Share
Share via
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • linkedin
  • whatsapp
Copy link
  • copy link

As US president Joe Biden finished his 26-minute press conference in Vietnam that capped off his trip to the country after the G20 summit, he joked, “I tell you what, I don’t know about you, but I’m going to go to bed." Joe Biden made the comment in response to a question about why he hasn’t spoken to Chinese president Xi Jinping. The Chinese leader and Russian president Vladimir Putin did not attend the G20 meet in New Delhi.

Joe Biden In Vietnam: US president Joe Biden meets with Vietnam's Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh (not pictured) in Hanoi, Vietnam. (Reuters)
Joe Biden In Vietnam: US president Joe Biden meets with Vietnam's Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh (not pictured) in Hanoi, Vietnam. (Reuters)

“I’ll just follow my orders here. Staff, is there anybody that hasn’t spoken yet? I ain’t calling on you,” Joe Biden said at another point during the presser.

In response to a question about climate change, the US president said, “The Indian looks at John Wayne and points to the Union soldier and says, ‘He’s a lying, dog-faced pony soldier!' Well, there’s a lot of lying, dog-faced pony soldiers out there about global warming."

Watch: Hawaii's Kilauea volcano erupts again spewing fountains of lava

The US president also quipped at reporters. When Voice of America correspondent Anita Powell said at one point. “Thank you, Mr. President. I hope you didn’t think that calling only on women would get you softballs tonight", Joe Biden joked, “If you sent me a softball I wouldn’t know what to do with it, I’d probably strike out even worse."

On China, the US president contented, “What this trip was about — it was less about containing China. I don’t want to contain China. I just want to make sure we have a relationship with China that is on the up and up, squared away.”

He also said that China's dampening economy would reduce the prospects of an invasion of Taiwan.

“I think China has a difficult economic problem right now for a whole range of reasons that relate to international growth and lack thereof and the policies that China has followed,” Biden told reporters.

“I don’t think it’s going to cause China to invade Taiwan; matter of fact, the opposite. It probably didn’t have the same capacity that it had before," he added.

  • Mallika Soni
    ABOUT THE AUTHOR
    Mallika Soni

    When not reading, this ex-literature student can be found searching for an answer to the question, "What is the purpose of journalism in society?"

Get the latest World News, breaking headlines and global updates from the US, UK, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Russia and other countries. Follow major international events on Hindustan Times.