Late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert said Wednesday night that President Joe Biden emitted “strong ‘Grandpa’s had it with your lip’ energy” in his exchange with CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins, Fox News reported.
Colbert ripped off his suit jacket and shouted at an imaginary reporter, “Watch it, mister! … Knock it off with the grab-a– and the horseplay. This isn’t a dog-and-pony show. Were you born in a barn? If you were, grab a pail and start milking the cows because they’re coming home to roost, Little Boy Blue! I fought in Korea!”
Biden confronted Collins following the session with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva, Switzerland. (RELATED: ‘What The Hell?’: Biden Snaps At CNN Reporter After Putin Meeting)
Stephen Colbert speaks onstage during the ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’ panel discussion at the CBS portion of the 2015 Summer TCA Tour at The Beverly Hilton Hotel in 2015 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
As Biden was walking away from the press conference, Collins asked Biden why he felt confident Putin would “change his behavior.”
“I’m not confident he’ll change his behavior. What the hell? What are you doing all the time?” Biden said, as he walked back to the podium with a finger raised in the air. “What I said was, let’s get it straight, what I said was, what will change their behavior is when the rest of the world reacts to them, and it diminishes their standing in the world. I’m not confident of anything, I’m just stating the facts.”
Collins then replied, “But given his past behavior has not changed, and in that press conference after sitting down with you for several hours, [Putin] denied any involvement in cyber-attacks, he downplayed human rights abuses, he even refused to say [Russian opposition leader] Alexei Navalny’s name. So, how does that account to a constructive meeting?”
“If you don’t understand that, you’re in the wrong business,” Biden responded, before leaving.
Later, Biden said he regretted how he handled the exchange and was sorry for “being such a wise guy.”