The reviews are in: Biden “has little to show” from Geneva summit

Joe Biden took front and center on the world stage yesterday after a summit with Vladimir Putin, and the reviews of his performance aren’t flattering. After a three hour session with Putin and a 30 minute, scripted press conference that resulted in Biden snapping at a CNN reporter, observers are less than impressed with the president’s first global challenge.

CNN: “The optics of the summit were almost tailored to suit Putin’s domestic needs. The meetings were requested by the US, which as far as the Kremlin is concerned, confirms that Putin is a leader of similar stature to the US President.

“‘This is exactly what the Kremlin wants. To talk to the US as equals and in such a way that the other side does not demand a change of position as a condition of dialogue,’ says Oleg Ignatov, Crisis Group’s senior Russia analyst based in Moscow.”

The Washington Post: “In short, the rhetoric sounded a lot like that which followed the initial encounters between the past three U.S. presidents and Mr. Putin, who has invariably reneged on his promises and relentlessly escalated his assaults on the U.S. political system and alliances. The Russian ruler’s implacable hostility toward the United States was evident in his performance at a post-summit news conference, in which he repeatedly offered bogus comparisons between his foreign aggressions, his human rights offenses, and U.S. actions.”

The New York Times: “The clear problem here is that Russia is coming away with a public relations win while the U.S. has little to show from the summit in terms of tangible improvements to national security. Mr. Putin has once again been elevated to the world stage in a face-off against the world’s pre-eminent superpower in a well-rehearsed and tiresome script that burnishes his credentials as a world leader.”

The Hill: “Vladimir Putin took questions from the press on Wednesday afternoon in Geneva following his first summit with President Biden. The Russian president spoke for more than 55 minutes and took more than two-dozen questions. He did not use a teleprompter at any time during the session. 

“Shortly thereafter, Biden took just seven questions from the press but first spoke from a teleprompter for 11 minutes.

“‘I’ll take your questions,’ President Biden said when pivoting from prompter mode to the Q&A. ‘And as usual, folks, they gave me a list of the people I’m going to call on.’”

Politico: “President Joe Biden conceded that he’d lost his composure on Wednesday toward the end of his post-summit debriefing with reporters in Geneva. And though he later apologized for being a ‘wise guy’ with a reporter, he continued to attack members of the media for their negativity, before heading back to the United States.”

Politico: “The confrontation served as an odd coda to a weeklong overseas trip that was meant to portray the president as bringing in an era of stability and order…”

Biden’s performance at the G-7 and in Geneva comes as Kamala Harris is still licking her wounds from her first trip abroad as vice president. Needless to say, the Biden-Harris White House has a lot of cleaning up to do after this administration’s unsuccessful weeks overseas.