President Joe Biden has the power to crack Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s poker face with just a single word.
The president once again called China’s President Xi Jinping a “dictator” during a news conference Wednesday and caused the top foreign affairs adviser to seemingly have a physical reaction to such a gaffe, the New York Post reported.
A reporter had asked Biden whether he still believes Xi is a dictator, hearkening back to an incident in June in which Biden had said the same forbidden word.
“Look, he is,” Biden answered the reporter.
“He’s a dictator in the sense that he’s a guy who runs a country that is a communist country that’s based on a form of government totally different than ours,” Biden said.
Blinken appeared to wince in pain as the word and all of its impact — the years of wasted diplomacy — landed on him. He shifted in his chair while nervously clasping his hands together in an effort to keep his composure.
A video with a close-up of Blinken’s face made the rounds on social media and was even something CNN took note of in a rare instance of journalism.
“Check out Blinken’s face the moment Biden calls Xi a “dictator,” The First TV opinion news network captioned its version.
Check out Blinken’s face the moment Biden calls Xi a “dictator.”pic.twitter.com/98XZDtara0
— The First (@TheFirstonTV) November 16, 2023
“Blinken looked like he wanted to crawl into a hole when Biden said Xi is a dictator,” another observed.
Blinken looked like he wanted to crawl into a hole when Biden said Xi is a dictator.
pic.twitter.com/HmbEJBalWy— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) November 16, 2023
This was no ordinary gaffe. It happened at the news conference that followed Biden’s meeting with the Chinese leader in San Francisco.
Xi, who was in town for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, had a four-hour meeting with Biden in an apparent effort to shore up positive relations between the two nations, Reuters reported.
Instead, Biden said the quiet part out loud, causing Blinken to look like he was about to burst a vein in his forehead.
While there’s certainly a comedic element to such a moment, the ramifications of the incident are no laughing matter.
Although it’s true that Xi is, in fact, a dictator, it was exactly the wrong thing for Biden to say at exactly the wrong time — and that points to a larger issue.
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Biden can’t be trusted to do the delicate work of diplomacy, which is increasingly important as America’s adversaries continue to prod for weaknesses and keep finding no shortage of them — not the least of which is Biden, our octogenarian liability-in-chief.
He can’t help but say what comes to his age-addled mind, even as we slide ever closer to World War III, and Biden just insulted one nation that would likely be a major player in starting it.
China is a formidable opponent all on its own because of its economic and military might.
However, its increasingly friendly ties to Russia make for a nightmare scenario.
Meanwhile, all that stands between the prospect of war and the hope of peace is Biden, who can’t manage to just keep his mouth shut or change the subject when it counts.
Unfortunately, that was the reality written all over Blinken’s face.
