At a recent campaign fundraiser in San Francisco, California, on February 21, 2024, President Joe Biden delivered candid comments about Russian President Vladimir Putin and former President Donald Trump, Biden’s probable Republican rival in the forthcoming election.
This event was part of Biden’s three-day fundraising tour in California for his 2024 reelection bid. Speaking in a private San Francisco residence, Biden offered his views on the current international and domestic political situation.
President Biden referred to Vladimir Putin as a “crazy SOB“, underscoring the Russian leader’s conduct and the continuous nuclear tensions. However, the president was keen to point out that, in his perspective, climate change poses the most significant threat to humanity at present, a topic crucial to his campaign’s focus.
The fundraiser also provided an opportunity for Biden to criticize Trump, who recently compared himself to Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader who died under dubious conditions in an Arctic prison the previous week.
Trump equated his legal problems in the U.S., including a fine of $350 million for falsifying financial documents, with Navalny’s persecution, insinuating that the U.S. was drifting towards communism or fascism. Biden found this comparison puzzling and voiced his surprise, stating, “I don’t know where the hell this comes from.”
Biden also commented on the current state of the Republican Party, suggesting it lacks moral direction, especially within its MAGA (Make America Great Again) faction. He emphasized the contrast between his administration’s efforts to support the middle class and the Republican’s proposals that, he believes, could jeopardize that demographic.
The President warned about the potential repercussions of a Republican win in November, which could include a nationwide ban on abortion and further efforts to dismantle health insurance programs launched during the Obama era.
Notable figures, including Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and San Francisco Mayor London Breed, welcomed Biden in San Francisco. Pelosi, who joined Biden on the helicopter flight to San Francisco’s Marina Green on Marine One, received high praise from the president as the “best Speaker of the House there has ever been.”
Biden’s comments at the fundraiser underscore the intensifying political dialogue as the 2024 election nears. He is positioning himself as a champion of democratic values against perceived international and domestic threats.