--- title: Biden Calls Putin ‘Crazy SOB’ and Hits Trump on Navalny Remarks description: “It astounds me the things that are being said,” Biden said. “I mean, if I stood here 10, 15 years ago and said any of this, you’d all think I should be committed.” canonical: https://time.com/6727308/biden-putin-trump-navalny/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-02-22T02:06:45.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T17:10:35.917Z article:section: Politics og:title: Biden Calls Putin ‘Crazy SOB’ and Hits Trump on Navalny Remarks og:description: “It astounds me the things that are being said,” Biden said. “I mean, if I stood here 10, 15 years ago and said any of this, you’d all think I should be committed.” og:url: https://time.com/6727308/biden-putin-trump-navalny/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt24ffcfd69dc0b1c0/698a48c04ee262915331cadb/joe-biden.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: President Joe Biden og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Biden Calls Putin ‘Crazy SOB’ and Hits Trump on Navalny Remarks twitter:description: “It astounds me the things that are being said,” Biden said. “I mean, if I stood here 10, 15 years ago and said any of this, you’d all think I should be committed.” twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt24ffcfd69dc0b1c0/698a48c04ee262915331cadb/joe-biden.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Biden Calls Putin ‘Crazy SOB’ and Hits Trump on Navalny Remarks > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=bc6300ea-ca2f-492f-a9ec-a9acbdcc1fff&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) by [Jennifer Jacobs and Michelle Jamrisko / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Jennifer Jacobs and Michelle Jamrisko / Bloomberg Contributor Feb 22, 2024 2:06 AM UTC  President Joe Biden at meeting with community at Culver City Julian Dixon Library in Culver City, Calif. on Feb. 21, 2024 President Joe Biden at meeting with community at Culver City Julian Dixon Library in Culver City, Calif. on Feb. 21, 2024 Irfan Khan—Los Angeles Times/Getty Images by [Jennifer Jacobs and Michelle Jamrisko / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Jennifer Jacobs and Michelle Jamrisko / Bloomberg Contributor Feb 22, 2024 2:06 AM UTC President Joe Biden called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “crazy SOB” and criticized Donald Trump for likening himself to recently deceased Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. “We have a crazy SOB like that guy Putin, and others, and we always have to worry about nuclear conflict,” Biden said Wednesday at a San Francisco fundraiser. Referring to the Republican frontrunner challenging his reelection bid, Biden said he didn’t know “where the hell this comes from,” referring to Trump’s comparison of himself to Navalny. “It astounds me the things that are being said,” Biden said. “I mean, if I stood here 10, 15 years ago and said any of this, you’d all think I should be committed.” Biden is on a three-day tour of the West Coast that has included fundraisers in Southern and Northern California, events that will add to the [$130 million](https://time.com/6552306/biden-speech-campaign-ad-democracy/) that his campaign had amassed as of the end of January. **Read More:** [_President Biden's Campaign Is on TikTok_](https://time.com/6694077/president-biden-tiktok/) In a Fox News town hall on Tuesday night, Trump compared [his legal troubles](https://time.com/6301112/trump-criminal-cases-status/) to Navalny’s fate, calling the Russian opposition leader’s death a “very sad situation” and asserting that his four criminal indictments are politically motivated. The ex-president stopped short of criticizing Putin in his remarks. White House spokesman John Kirby on Tuesday said there would be a “major sanctions package” against Russia [to be announced on Friday](https://time.com/6696811/alexei-navalny-russia-white-house-sanctions/), building on penalties against Putin’s regime following Navalny’s death and as the invasion of Ukraine enters its third year. Approval of further aid to Ukraine for the war with Russia remains mired in partisan debates on Capitol Hill, with House lawmakers on recess this week. **Read More:** [_Putin's Myths About Ukraine, Debunked_](https://time.com/6693504/vladimir-putin-history-myths-russia-ukraine-debunked/) Biden is scheduled to attend two fundraisers Wednesday. Twilio Inc. co-founder John Wolthuis and Nat Simons, co-founder of the Sea Change Foundation, were among the scheduled attendees at the first event, according to a person familiar with the matter, while Gordon Getty, the son of oil tycoon J. Paul Getty, was on the guest list for the second. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6727308/biden-putin-trump-navalny/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6727308/biden-putin-trump-navalny/"},"headline":"Biden Calls Putin ‘Crazy SOB’ and Hits Trump on Navalny Remarks","datePublished":"2024-02-22T02:06:45.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T17:10:35.917Z","description":"“It astounds me the things that are being said,” Biden said. “I mean, if I stood here 10, 15 years ago and said any of this, you’d all think I should be committed.”","url":"https://time.com/6727308/biden-putin-trump-navalny/","keywords":["Joe Biden","Donald Trump","wire","overnight","News Desk"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt24ffcfd69dc0b1c0/698a48c04ee262915331cadb/joe-biden.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jennifer Jacobs and Michelle Jamrisko / Bloomberg"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt24ffcfd69dc0b1c0/698a48c04ee262915331cadb/joe-biden.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Joe Biden","caption":"President Joe Biden at meeting with community at Culver City Julian Dixon Library in Culver City, Calif.","creditText":"Irfan Khan—Los Angeles Times/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/joe-biden/","name":"Joe Biden"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6727308/biden-putin-trump-navalny/","name":"Biden Calls Putin ‘Crazy SOB’ and Hits Trump on Navalny Remarks"}}]}] ```