Putin used Wednesday’s interview to downplay hypothesis about Biden’s cognitive well being, recalling when the 2 met in Switzerland in June 2021, lower than a yr earlier than Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“After I met with Biden in Switzerland — it was, certainly, a couple of years in the past, three years — even then there have been talks about him being incompetent. I noticed nothing of the kind. Sure, he glanced at his notes. Truthfully, I glanced at mine too,” Putin mentioned. “There’s nothing to it.”
Putin mentioned he’s much less involved along with his U.S. counterpart’s well being than with Washington’s political place, which he mentioned was “extraordinarily dangerous and inaccurate.”
Trump, and Biden’s different Republican opponents, have seized on the president’s psychological skills to argue he isn’t match to proceed to carry workplace after a collection of gaffes complicated world leaders and a current Justice Division particular counsel report that described him as a “well-meaning, aged man with a poor reminiscence.”
Trump himself has confronted questions on his age and psychological acuity, with Biden’s marketing campaign suggesting the previous president could also be fighting diminished cognition and continuously calling him “confused.”
“Mr. Putin ought to keep out of America’s elections,” mentioned White Home spokesperson Andrew Bates.
Gregory Svirnovskiy, Sergey Goryashko and Jonathan Lemire contributed reporting.
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