Biden calls Putin a ‘crazy SOB,’ rails against Trump at San Francisco fundraiser

President Biden railed against Russian President Vladimir Putin, former President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans during his remarks at a campaign fundraiser in California on Wednesday.

Biden, 81, was discussing climate change at the San Francisco event, which was held at the home of billionaire Democratic donor Gordon Getty, when he referred to his Russian counterpart using an acronym for a vulgar term. 

“This is the last existential threat, it is climate,” the president said, according to a pool report. “We have a crazy SOB like that guy Putin, and others, and we always have to worry about nuclear conflict, but the existential threat to humanity is climate.” 

Biden, who has laid the blame squarely on Putin for last week’s death of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, went on to criticize Trump for claiming that he’s being politically oppressed by the judicial system as a result of his White House run.

“He’s comparing himself to Navalny and saying that because our country’s become a communist country, he was persecuted, just like Navalny was persecuted. Where the hell does this come from?” Biden said, according to CNN. “If I stood here 10 to 15 years ago and said all this, you’d all think I should be committed … It’s astounding.”

The president also claimed that numerous world leaders have confided in him that they don’t want to see Trump in the Oval Office again. 

“As I walk out of meetings, a head of state will find an excuse to come up close and say, ‘You’ve got to win.’ Not because I’m so special. You’ve got to win because democracy is at stake if the other guy wins,” Biden said.  

“Nine heads of state have done that with me,” he claimed. 

Biden also took a jab at Republicans in Congress, several of whom have opposed signing off on providing Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan billions of dollars in foreign aid and bipartisan efforts at enhancing border security, calling them “worse” than the “real racists” he served with during his 36 years as a senator from Delaware. 

“I’ve been a senator since [1972]. I’ve served with real racists. I’ve served with Strom Thurmond. I’ve served with all these guys that have set terrible records on race. But guess what? These guys are worse. These guys do not believe in basic democratic principles,” the president said, referring to the late segregationist senator from South Carolina and current GOP members of Congress. 

Biden acknowledged that Thurmond, who died in 2003, did “terrible things” but he also praised him for purportedly “having more African American in his staff than any other member in Congress” when he left office and for voting to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act.

“I’m not making him more than he was,” the president said. “But my point is at least you could work with some of these guys.”

“Time and again Republicans show they are the party of chaos and division,” he added.