Biden snaps at reporter over whether he's confident Putin will change, later apologizes
When asked on his way out of his solo press conference by CNN's Kaitlin Collins why he was confident Putin will change his behavior, Biden walked back toward reporters, raised his finger and said, "What the hell?... When did I say I was confident?"
Collins followed up noting Biden said earlier it would take "six months to a year" to see if the U.S. and Russia "have a strategic dialogue that matters."
"What I said was, let’s get it straight. I said what will change their behavior is if the rest of the world reacts to them and it diminishes their standing in the world. I'm not confident of anything. I'm just stating a fact," he said.
When she followed up again, Biden said, "If you don’t understand that, you’re in the wrong business."
But by the time he arrived at Air Force One a short while later to return to Washington, Biden walked over to reporters and apologized.
"I owe my last question an apology. I shouldn’t have -- I shouldn’t have been such a wise guy with the last answer I gave," he said. "Anyway. Thanks for being here," adding he feels good about where the country is headed following his first foreign trip.