Awed by Yuri Sholmov’s biceps, the US leader moved in for a squeeze
Joe Biden speaks at the G20 Summit in Nusa Dua on the Indonesian island of Bali, November 16, 2022. © AFP / Saul Loeb
US President Joe Biden told Russian cameraman Yuri Sholmov that he was “worried” about his bulging biceps, and that he hoped the Russian was “on the same side” as him.
Sholmov, a camera operator with Channel One Russia, met Biden and a number of other Western leaders at the G20 summit in Indonesia on Tuesday. Biden, who has boasted of his physical fitness throughout his political career, made a beeline for the Russian’s “guns.”
“By the way, I very much worry about this guy’s biceps,” Biden said as he pointed to Sholmov. “His biceps are as big as my calves,” he continued. “There’s a man. I hope we’re on the same side.”
Informed that Sholmov was in fact Russian, Biden remarked “I don’t care who he is. He’s got some real biceps. We call ‘em guns.”
"There's a man. I hope we're on the same side.""Sir… he's Russian." "I don't care who he is. He's got some real biceps. We call them guns." pic.twitter.com/OKqRRi614b
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) November 16, 2022
French President Emmanuel Macron, meanwhile, smiled at the display of physical prowess in front of him, wishing the Russian “good training.”
While Biden turns 79 this weekend and has been filmed struggling to ascend stairs, he was a high school and college athlete in his formative years, and often comments on his physical fitness. Biden challenged former President Donald Trump to a pushup contest in 2019, and declared that he would “beat the hell” out of Trump if they were in high school together.
The US president, who has been repeatedly criticized for inappropriate touching of women and girls, has also offered unprompted comments on the male physique. Meeting a New York activist in February, Biden declined a handshake, instead squeezing the man’s bicep and declaring that “this man’s got some guns.”
