Stenaographer: Putin 'bitch-slapped' Biden in Moscow

FPI / March 21, 2021

During an interview with the White House propaganda wing that aired on Wednesday, Joe Biden claimed that, in 2011, he had stared down Russian President Vladimir Putin, got in his face, and said the Russian leader didn't have a soul. Biden said Putin smiled and said "we understand one another."

The comment about Putin having "no soul" was first seen in a 2014 interview then-Vice President Biden gave to the New Yorker.

Biden said of a 2011 meeting with Putin at the Kremlin: “I had an interpreter, and when he was showing me his office I said, ‘It’s amazing what capitalism will do, won’t it? A magnificent office!’ And he laughed. As I turned, I was this close to him,” Biden said, signaling that the two leaders were standing just inches apart. “I said, ‘Mr. Prime Minister, I’m looking into your eyes, and I don’t think you have a soul.’ ”

Mike McCormick, White House stenographer during the Obama-Biden administration, said that Biden "is lying about his 2011 dealings" with Putin in Moscow.

In a March 18 op-ed for the National Pulse, McCormick said he knows Biden is lying, "because I was an eyewitness to the events of that day. Events that Washington, D.C.’s media have failed to press Biden on – and that give an extraordinary insight into how our now-president was humiliated by his Russian counterparts."

Ever since the 2011 meeting in the Kremlin, "Biden and his staffers – with the help of Washington’s press corps – have been spinning the story 180 degrees away from how it actually happened," McCormick noted.

McCormick documented what he said happened at Biden’s only meeting with Putin in his book "Joe Biden Unauthorized".

"Biden got bitch slapped, and he’s pretending he didn’t," McCormick said.

McCormick writes of the 2011 Kremlin meeting:

"Putin knows what happened. He was there. He knows he compromised Joe Biden, who appeared unprepared to deal with the ruthless, former-KGB agent. Regardless, Joe continues to perpetuate his 'I was the tough guy' lie.

"As Joe Biden’s White House stenographer, I stood directly behind Putin at a distance of five feet. Biden, seated across from Putin at an elegant conference table, was about 12 feet from me.

"About 10 minutes into the meeting, Vice President Biden attempted to start lecturing about his decades-old part in U.S.-Russian negotiations with the dreaded phrase, “I’ve been around a long time. The first time I was here…”

"And… cut.

"Joe Biden got about one sentence further into that spiel when off went his microphone, off went the lights for the TV cameras, and stern Russian voices were commanding the press to leave. And leave they did.

They went out quickly and efficiently, with videocameras popping off of tripods. Equipment snapping shut. Portable lights clattering down retractable poles. No one spoke, and no one dared linger.

"This was Putin in all his KGB ruthlessness. Whether by some prearranged signal or simply an undisclosed time limit, he had pulled the plug and done the unthinkable: he’d stolen Joe Biden’s audience and rendered him speechless. Shut him down in mid-sentence with the flick of an invisible switch.

"Across the table, I could see Vice President of the United States Joe Biden, in the now dimly lit room, looking as duped as an exhausted fish in the bottom of a boat. No protest, no complaint. No, hey, I wasn’t finished. Nothing. He was humiliated.

"To me, the revelation was the premeditated precision of the snub. Putin or his team had likely plotted this all out. They knew exactly what bait to use, exactly how Joe Biden would take it, and then when he did, they reeled him helplessly in.

"The Russian President and his delegation sat calmly and coldly as their American counterparts realized their blustery leader’s big moment had been stolen right out from under him. The most powerful man in Russia had neither fear nor respect for Joe Biden. He had just played with him for sport."

ABC News personality George Stephanopoulos on Wednesday asked Biden if he believes Putin is a killer, to which Biden replied "I do."

Biden also said Putin would "pay a price" for allegedly interfering in U.S. elections.

Pressed on whether the 2011 anecdote was true, Biden confirmed, “absolutely, positively.”

“And he looked back at me, and he smiled, and he said, ‘We understand one another.’ ” Biden said. “This is who this guy is!”

Social media users weren't buying Biden's claims. Responses included:

Does anyone believe this happened?

This did not happen.

And…

…Zero chance this happened.

Maybe it did happen. We should ask Corn Pop, he’ll surely know.

Meanwhile, Putin responded by saying he wished his 78-year-old counterpart “good health,” adding, “I say that without irony and not as a joke.”

Putin suggested that Biden, through his statements, was being hypocritical, projecting his own flaws onto others, according to Reuters.

Putin further stated that every country has to deal with “bloody events,” and that Biden was accusing Putin of something he could be accused of himself.

“I remember in my childhood, when we argued in the courtyard with each other we used to say: it takes one to know one. And that’s not a coincidence, not just a children’s saying or joke. The psychological meaning here is very deep,” said Putin.

Russia responded to Biden's remarks by recalling its ambassador from Washington.

Konstantin Kosachyov, deputy chairman of the Sovfed, the Russian parliament’s upper house, said that Russia seeks an apology from the U.S. over Biden’s statements.

Biden’s “value judgments are unacceptable for a politician of such a high rank,” Kosachyov said, adding that regardless of circumstances, “they inevitably lead to a deterioration of the bilateral relations.”

Applauding Putin’s decision to recall the Russian ambassador to the U.S., Kosachyov said he suspects “that it was not the last measure if the U.S. does not apologize.”

Referring specifically to Biden’s claim that Putin was a “killer,” the parliamentarian said, “this position was taken by the president of the [United States] that, according to professional estimates, bombs someplace on the planet every 12 minutes. As a result, since 2001, the deaths of 500 thousand people have been associated with the actions of the U.S. Will you comment on that, Mr. Biden?”

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