US President Joe Biden referred to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, as a "crazy SOB" (meaning "crazy son of a bitch") at the San Francisco fundraiser for his 2024 reelection campaign on Wednesday. The event was attended by a small group of reporters.

Biden was talking about climate change when he said, "We have a crazy SOB like this guy Putin and others, and we always have to worry about nuclear conflict, but the existential threat to humanity is climate."

On Tuesday, Biden said the US would announce a package of tough new sanctions against Russia on Friday over the death in prison of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Moscow responded, saying Biden's insult only served to debase the United States.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the use of such vocabulary was a poor attempt to appear like a "Hollywood cowboy."

"The use of such language against the head of another state by the president of the United States is unlikely to infringe on our president, President Putin," Peskov said.

Biden criticizes Trump

Speaking to donors at a private San Francisco home, Biden also attacked his presumed Republican election rival Donald Trump for comparing his legal cases brought against him to the fate of Alexei Navalny.

"Some of the things that this fellow's been saying, like he's comparing himself to Navalny and saying that — because our country's become a communist country, he was persecuted, just like Navalny was persecuted. I don't know where the hell this comes from," 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," he added. "It astounds me."

Biden's strong language

Biden's outburst of harsh language follows other instances of him calling the Russian president, who ordered the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, a "butcher" and a "war criminal."

Biden has also previously called others "son of a bitch." In January 2022, he was caught on a live mic using the same expletive against a Fox News White House reporter.

dh/sms (AFP, AP, Reuters)