President Biden on Thursday said that Russian President Vladimir Putin is a “murderous dictator” and a “pure thug,” according to multiple reports.
Biden’s remarks were made at the Friends of Ireland Luncheon event, which is held every year on St. Patrick’s Day at Capitol Hill, CNN reported.
While speaking at the event, Biden condemned Putin and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, saying, “My generic point is that, you know, now you have Ireland and Great Britain … standing together against a murderous dictator, a pure thug who is waging an immoral war against the people of Ukraine.”
Biden also criticized Putin earlier Thursday during a meeting with Micheál Martin, Ireland’s prime minister.
“Putin’s brutality and what he’s doing and his troops are doing in Ukraine is just inhumane,” Biden said, according to CNN.
This comes after Biden on Wednesday called Putin a “war criminal” in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“The president’s remarks speak for themselves. He was speaking from his heart and speaking from what he’s seen on television, which is barbaric actions by a brutal dictator through an invasion of a foreign country,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki.
The Kremlin responded to Biden calling Putin a war criminal, saying that the accusations were “unacceptable and unforgivable rhetoric on the part of the head of a state whose bombs have killed hundreds of thousands of people around the world.”
At the event on Thursday, Biden also said that he will be speaking with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday and that Biden believes that the world is at an “inflection point in history,” NBC News reported.
“I think we’re in a genuine struggle between autocracies and democracies and whether or not democracies can be sustained,” Biden added, according to NBC News.
