On Wednesday, New York Magazine reporter Olivia Nuzzi addressed President Joe Biden snapping at a reporter during his Geneva press conference, suggesting if Biden cannot answer simple questions then he might be “in the wrong business.”
“If you’re the most powerful person in the world and you can’t field questions from the media without losing your temper, maybe you’re in the wrong business,” Nuzzi tweeted. “What kind of example does it set for other countries when the president of the United States insults a member of the free press on an international stage for asking a fair question in good faith?”
What kind of example does it set for other countries when the president of the United States insults a member of the free press on an international stage for asking a fair question in good faith?
— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) June 16, 2021
Nuzzi’s tweet was referencing Biden being combative with CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins on Wednesday.
“Why are you so confident he’ll change his behavior, Mr. President?” Collins asked.
“I’m not confident he’ll change his behavior,” Biden snapped. “Where the hell — what do you do all the time? When did I say I was confident?”
“But given his past behavior has not changed,” Collins continued. “And in that press conference after sitting down with you for several hours he denied any involvement in cyberattacks, he downplayed human rights abuses, he even refused to say Alexei Navalny’s name.”
“So how does that account to a constructive meeting?” Collins asked.
“If you don’t understand that, you’re in the wrong business,” the president said before walking off.
President Biden went off on CNN's Kaitlan Collins at the end of his post-summit press conference and suggested she may be "in the wrong business" after she asked why he was "so confident" that Putin will "change his behavior." pic.twitter.com/QhkyT4pEXm
— Mediaite (@Mediaite) June 16, 2021
Biden later apologized for his outburst, saying, ““I shouldn’t have been such a wise guy with the last answer I gave.”
Biden then tried his best to answer questions again, before saying, “Look, to be a good reporter, you’ve got to be negative.”
He continued, “You’ve got to have a negative view of life, it seems to me, the way you all … You never ask a positive question.”
