I mentioned earlier how Joe Biden was three hours late for his presser today after NATO meetings in Belgium.

People were actually beginning to wonder what was taking him so long and why he was late and there were 100 members of the press waiting for him all that time. Not a good way to soften them up when he was supposed to speak at 9:00 p.m. their time.

He never really gave a good answer for being that late so one has to wonder what was going on.

But as we noted, he wasn’t in good condition when he held his presser. He spoke for 25 minutes but then only took five questions. That’s not a real press conference. Then, once again, the people he called on all appeared to be pre-selected — he read their names off a piece of paper.

Notable: all 5 questions were from pre-selected reporters. When he called on them, he was reading names off a piece of paper. https://t.co/Aqi2iOL9x1

— Abigail Marone (@abigailmarone) June 14, 2021

On a pre-selected list. https://t.co/r7VEOdLYDC

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) June 14, 2021

CBS’s Kathryn Watson criticized that saying it wasn’t good for getting answers, whatever you thought of Biden.

I don’t care whether you love Biden or can’t stand him — more questions from more U.S. reporters is a good thing, to get more answers or even more non-answers. Because those can be telling, too.

— Kathryn Watson (@kathrynw5) June 14, 2021

Now, as I previously noted, Biden was asked a question about Putin where he appeared to back-off his prior criticism of him to some degree saying that he didn’t see any point in repeating that now.

The leader of the free world's brain just completely broke when he was asked if Putin is a "killer" pic.twitter.com/q1pEK4nMFp

— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) June 14, 2021

Of course there’s a point. You’re there to hold Putin’s feet to the fire over questions of cyberattacks on the United States, among other things. You don’t see any point in being tough on him now?

Notice, also, when he is asked that question and isn’t able to answer, he appears almost to be listening intently for several seconds, then responds, “The answer is I believe, he’s in the past essentially acknowledged that he was, there are certain things that he would do or did do. But look, when I was asked that question on air, I answered it honestly. But, I, I, I don’t think it matters a whole lot in terms of this next meeting we’re about to have.”

Not only did Biden back off his criticism of Putin to some degree, he even lavished praise on him, calling him “bright, tough” and a “worthy adversary.”

Biden lavished praise on Putin. If President Donald Trump had done this, the media would have a fit. pic.twitter.com/1j5yEJdhf0

— Amy Tarkanian (@MrsT106) June 14, 2021

So Ted Cruz had a great question for the media: Where is their criticism of Biden for this praise of Putin? We know, had Trump said this, that they never would have stopped commenting on it. Where is the criticism of Biden?

WATCH this: To all the press who lost their minds about Helsinki, saying (rightly) that Trump’s language should have been tougher on Putin, will you have the same fervor holding Biden to account for doing the same? 🤔 https://t.co/zL3mSar6nq

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) June 14, 2021

Whatever he said or didn’t say, Trump was far tougher on Putin and Russia than Biden has been. Indeed, it’s hard to imagine what more Biden could have done for Putin than he already has. Just like Barack Obama, Biden talks tough but, in reality, bends over at every opportunity while Trump was the opposite. With his recent move of waiving sanctions related to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, Biden just gave Putin a bigger foothold of control over the EU, something we’ve been trying to prevent for decades, and it gives Putin’s energy production a huge boost.

Again, this just confirms that the criticism about Trump over Russia was not only all show and wrong, to begin with, but that it was completely political.

Biden was supposed to be going with a tough message for Putin. Instead, he was tougher on Republicans overseas, lying and attacking them more than he criticized Putin.