The president, 80, visited Vietnam as he circumnavigates the globe in just five days. And his 26-minute press conference, which started an hour late, featured a string of strange incidents – before the POTUS said:”‘I tell you what, I don’t know about you, but I’m going to go to bed.”
Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre then stepped in and said: “Thank you everybody. This ends the press conference. Thanks, everyone.”
But some would say the damage had already been done by this point. At one point he said: “I’m just following my orders here”.
And he also went off on a climate-change ramble, namechecking John Wayne, ‘Indians’ and ‘lying dog-faced pony soldiers’.
The press conference didn’t exactly start well, either. After keeping the crowd waiting for an hour, he said: “Good evening, everyone. It’s already evening, isn’t it? It’s around the world in five days – it’s interesting.”
He then referred to the classic Robin Williams film, which critics say was tactless because the dark comedy is set during the United States’ bloody war in Vietnam.
However, it would appear this significance was lost on Biden – as he appeared to think Good Morning Vietnam was a song.
He told the Hanoi crowd: “One of my coworkers said, ‘Remember the famous song Good Morning Vietnam?’ Well, good evening, Vietnam’.”
The reference was quickly seized upon by his critics. On X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, FuriaDiDonna said: “Oh good, reference the darkly satirical title of a movie about a horrible and bloody war that still looms largely in Vietnam’s psyche”
Booker9e said: “So, he’s making a joke in Vietnam about a catchphrase (not a song) in a (great) movie that’s about the US being at war in their country?”
The film starring Robin Williams was one of the biggest hits of 1987. It tells the story of Airman Adrian Cronauer, who arrived in Saigon – now Ho Chi Minh City – to work as a DJ for Armed Forces Radio. Cronauer arrived as the war intensified in 1965.
It wasn’t Biden’s only offbeat film reference. Having just come from the G20 summit in India, he decided to recount a scene from the 1952 John Wayne western ‘Pony Soldier’.
Biden explained the film features ‘Indians’ who are far from convinced when a Union soldier says “everything will be good” if they go back to the reservation.
Trying to make a point about climate change, which was high on the G20s agenda in New Delhi, Biden said: “And the Indian looks at John Wayne and points to the Union soldier and says, ‘He’s a lying dog faced pony soldier.’ Well, there’s a lot of lying dog-faced pony soldiers out there about global warming. But not anymore.”
The president’s comment that he was “just following my orders here” came as he appeared to look at a list of news organizations or reporters he had been briefed to take questions from. “They gave me five people here,” he said – as reporters in the audience yelled and waved their hands, hoping to ask questions.
The questions that did come were China-heavy. And Biden mostly skipped US print and TV reporters who were perhaps keen to address domestic issues, such as a possible indictment of his son, Hunter, on a gun charge – or his low polling numbers due to his advanced age.
Polls show there is wide concern about Biden’s age ahead of a potential second term. A survey last week from AP-NORC showed that 77 per cent of Americans, including 69 per cent of Democrats, believe Biden is too old to run for reelection. Donald Trump, who is leading the Republican nominate race is, at 77, three years younger.
