Biden Takes 'Dog Faced Pony Soldier' Routine Abroad with Bizarre Press Conference, Ends by Saying 'I'm Gonna Go to Bed'
President Joe Biden revived one of his most infamous Bidenisms during a trip to Vietnam on Sunday as he addressed reporters about climate change.
Biden referred to people who do not buy into the theory that there is a climate emergency as “lying, dog-faced pony soldiers.”
The president was in Hanoi on a diplomatic visit after spending the previous day in India with world leaders for the Group of 20 summit.
“Did you ever think you’d be sitting at a G-20 conference where everyone was preoccupied with the notion of global warming?” he asked those in attendance at the Marriott Hotel Hanoi. “Not a joke. Did you ever think that?”
Biden then invoked his brother, who he said loves to quote old films.
“There’s — there’s a movie about John Wayne. He’s an Indian scout. And they’re trying to get the Ap- — I think it was the Apache — one — one of the great tribes of America back on the reservation,” the president said.
He continued, “And he’s standing with a Union [soldier] so he’s — they’re all on their — and they’re on their horses in their saddles. And there’s three or four Indians in headdresses, and the Union soldiers — and the Union soldiers are basically saying to the Indians, ‘Come with me, we’ll take care of you. We’ll — everything will be good.’
“And the Indian scout — the Indian looks at John Wayne and points to the Union soldier and says, ‘He’s a lying, dog-faced pony soldier.'”
Biden then repeated the line while he broadly referred to those who are not aligned with his climate agenda.
“Well, there’s a lot of lying, dog-faced pony soldiers out there about — about global warming,” he said.
“But not anymore. All of a sudden, they’re all realizing it’s a problem. And there’s nothing like seeing the light.”
This is sad pic.twitter.com/MHGXurNTNF
— Malachi Maxey (@malachimaxeyusa) September 10, 2023
Moments later, the president told reporters, “But I tell you what, I don’t know about you, but I’m going to go to bed.”
Joe Biden starts to run out of batteries and announces that he’s going to bed. pic.twitter.com/gqKUTOoGkr
— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) September 11, 2023
Sunday was not the first time Biden had referred to someone as a “lying dog-faced pony soldier.”
In February 2020, then-candidate Biden made headlines when he disparaged a female college student in New Hampshire who asked him why voters in the state should believe he could win the general election.
“Iowa’s a Democratic caucus,” he said to the young woman. “You ever been to a caucus?”
After the woman said that she had, Biden fired back, “No, you haven’t. You’re a lying dog-faced pony soldier.”
After a New Hampshire voter asks @JoeBiden why they should trust he can turn his campaign around, he asks if she’s ever been to a caucus before; when she says yes, Biden snaps: “No you haven’t. You’re a lying dog-faced pony soldier.” pic.twitter.com/3uxOAu0Ues
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) February 9, 2020
The woman, later identified as 21-year-old Madison Moore, said Biden’s response was “insulting.”
Biden also used the term in 2018 while speaking in North Dakota.
His claim Sunday that he was quoting Wayne is inaccurate, as there is no evidence the star ever uttered the phrase “lying dog-faced pony soldier” on camera during his career.
As Vox pointed out after Biden used the phrase in 2020, “The general consensus seems to be that Biden is probably thinking of the 1952 Tyrone Power film ‘Pony Soldier,’ in which a character says, ‘The pony soldier speaks with a tongue of the snake that rattles.’”
Meanwhile, the phrase “dog-faced soldiers” is used in the 1949 John Wayne film “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon,” as The Messenger noted.
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