A sleepy Joe Biden saw his rambling Vietnam Press Conference brought to a sudden end on Sunday night with a mic cut and jazz music playing him off the stage, like he went too long in an awards speech.
Biden was mid-flow and answering questions from journalists when he was interrupted and forced to shuffle away and head backstage.
‘We talked about stability, we talked about the Third World, excuse me, the Southern Hemisphere has access to change. It wasn’t confrontational at all….’ Biden said as he rambled on.
Suddenly, the booming voice of his press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, could be heard butting in.
‘Thank you everybody. This ends the press conference. Thanks everyone,’ she said as she brought the presser to a close.
A sleepy Joe Biden saw his Rambling Vietnam Press conference brought to a sudden end on Sunday night with a mic cut and jazz music playing him off the stage
Biden was mid-flow and answering questions from journalists when he was interrupted
Suddenly, the booming voice of his press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre , could be heard butting in and thanking people for attending
All the while, Biden continued to speak, not realizing his mic had long since been muted.
In another bizarre twist, sleepy jazz music then began to play over the loudspeaker, with the 80-year-old still seemingly trying to answer questions as he continued to speak into the microphone.
As the president tried to answer a few more questions, the music grew louder prompting Biden to put away his leather-backed folder and shuffle offstage, disappearing behind a black curtain.
Earlier in the press conference in Hanoi, Vietnam, following the G20 summit in New Delhi, India, Biden risked upsetting his Vietnamese hosts with quotes from the Robin Williams movie Good Morning, Vietnam – which he seemed to think was a song.
The president arrived in the country after two days at the G20 summit in India and admitted he was struggling to tell if it was day or night.
‘Good evening, everyone,’ he told a press conference.
‘It’s already evening, isn’t it? It’s around the world in five days – it’s interesting.
‘One of my coworkers said, ‘Remember the famous song ‘Good Morning Vietnam’?’ Well, good evening, Vietnam’.’
In what was supposed to be a show of stamina – Biden is circumnavigating the globe in five days – he ended the 26-minute event by saying, ‘I’m going to go to bed.’
Biden held a press conference in Hanoi, Vietnam, Sunday night after spending two days in India for the G20 Leaders’ Summit. At the presser, he talked to reporters about a John Wayne movie that featured the ‘Indians’ to make a point about climate change
Biden grabbed the hand mic and left the podium at one point to address a reporter who was standing to one side of the room
But, Biden rambled in his speech and made a reference to Good Morning Vietnam, a movie that he said was a song. Pictured: Actor Robin Williams who started in the 1987 movie
After his mic was cut, Biden tried to speak not realizing he had been silenced. He had to shuffle off the stage as jazz music loudly played
The president had been asked if he was concerned that there was no agreement on fossil fuels that came out of the G20 Leaders’ Summit in New Delhi.
He regaled reporters with a story he says is from a John Wayne movie and features the ‘Indians’ – not the ones he just met with – who don’t buy it when a Union soldier says ‘everything will be good’ if they go back to the reservation.
‘And 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. But not anymore,’ Biden said. ‘All of the sudden, they’re all realizing it’s a problem,’ the president said, whispering into the mic.
He’s used ‘lying dog-faced pony soldier,’ once at a 2020 campaign event in New Hampshire and at an event in Connecticut in June, where he also muttered, ‘God save the Queen, man.’
The president’s clumsy comments were leapt on by opponents and slammed by critics as further signs that he would struggle to cope with a second term.
‘Biden gets VERY confused during his ‘press conference’ in Vietnam,’ tweeted RNC Research.
‘And Democrats wonder why Biden isn’t polling better,’ added former Trump senior adviser Jason Miller.
Others cringed at his misplaced attempt at humor warning that his jokey reference to the Vietnam War risked upsetting a key ally in the struggle against China.
The president’s misplaced stab at humor left many on social media cringing in embarassment
‘Oh good, reference the darkly satirical title of a movie about a horrible and bloody war that still looms largely in Vietnam’s psyche,’ tweeted FuriaDiDonna.
‘So he’s making a joke in Vietnam about a catchphrase (not a song) in a (great) movie that’s about the US being at war in their country??’ added Booker9e.
‘The Joe Biden Comedy Hour,’ wrote Robert Phyithree.
‘Stick around, it will only get more ridiculous and sublime.’
The 1987 film was one of the biggest hits of the year, telling the story of Airman Adrian Cronauer who arrived in Saigon to work as a DJ for Armed Forces Radio as the war intensified in 1965.
Starting each show with his catch phrase ‘Good morning, Vietnam!’, Cronauer, played by Williams infuriates his superiors with his rock and roll playlist and satirical commentary on their conduct of the war.
It won Williams the funniest actor prize at the American Comedy Awards and its soundtrack, featuring the Beach Boys, James Brown and the Searchers, went platinum.
Sunday’s bizarre moment came at a press conference that started more than an hour late and kicked off by the president acknowledging that his aides told him who he would be calling on.
Opponents said the remarks added to growing questions about the president’s fitness for office
‘They gave me five people here,’ Biden said, returning to his custom of both calling from, and speaking about, the list apologetically.
‘I’m just following my orders here,’ he said at another point, as he looked at his list to call another news organization or name, as reporters in the audience yelled and waved their hands frantically to be called on.
