Well, you know what they say: A picture is worth a thousand words.
In the case of contrasting photographs of Wednesday’s meeting between President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin and former President Donald Trump’s 2018 summit with the Russian leader, several thousand words, perhaps.
The Geneva face-to-face between Putin and the new American president following Biden’s visit to the U.K. for the G-7 summit was anxiously anticipated by the American media and public alike, as we waited to see how the notoriously gaffe-prone Biden, who routinely shows signs of cognitive decline, would behave.
It goes without saying that the United States has a tense and oftentimes adversarial relationship with Russia, and it is of the utmost importance that an American president is able to put on a strong, unyielding front when meeting with Putin, who is known for his cool, blunt manner of trying to humiliate other foreign leaders in public.
In other words, it was highly likely Biden would be chopped liver to the nefarious Russian autocrat.
Yes, the few moments that the two leaders spent speaking with the media together before adjourning to a closed-door meeting were rife with facepalm-worthy muddled confusion on Biden’s part, from yelling at a CNN reporter to appearing to nod when asked if he trusted Putin to referring to his Russian counterpart as “President Trump.”
One of the most embarrassing aspects of the 78-year-old president’s terrible performance was the fact that he came armed to the high-stakes press event with note cards. No, really:
Telling. pic.twitter.com/knaUP7dx9Q
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) June 16, 2021
It wasn’t the first time the president has been seen referencing notecards.
In fact, it wasn’t even the first time he was seen using them since arriving in Europe this week.
But it turns out, it wasn’t the first time that such note cards have made their appearance at a U.S.-Russia summit.
The one glaring difference is that the last time around, when it was Trump’s job to put on a strong front on the global stage while meeting with the nefarious leader, it was Putin who brought the cards.
Guess who brought flash cards to the Trump-Putin meeting? https://t.co/w6dmTtG4ST pic.twitter.com/TuUwO59GF5
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) June 16, 2021
What did I say? This just about sums it up.
Say what you will about Trump, he was always ready with something to say, particularly subtle, sly jabs at rivals, and he always remained even-tempered no matter how animated his various verbal sparring matches got.
Biden, on the other hand, constantly bumbles for something to say, loses his head or his train of thought on a regular basis and has demonstrated a consistent need to have cards, notes (to varying degrees of success) and teleprompters just to take questions from reporters or make a television appearance.
This is a terrible, terrible look to portray to the global community, particularly as he’s sitting next to a man who wants nothing more than to make him — and our nation — look bad.
We were told for four straight years that the world was laughing at us for having a leader like President Trump.
If that was the case, what on earth do they think about us now that Biden is in office?
