President Joe Biden made a reference to John Wayne Sunday to underscore his frustration with disagreement over climate change.
"The Indian looks at John Wayne and points to the Union soldier and says, 'He's a lying, dog-faced pony soldier!'" Biden said during a press conference in Hanoi, Vietnam. "Well, there's a lot of lying, dog-faced pony soldiers out there about global warming."
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Biden was responding to a question about whether he was concerned that the G20 summit did not reach an agreement about fossil fuel use.
Biden made the comment after spending two and a half days in New Delhi, India, for the Group of 20 leaders' summit, arriving in Hanoi on Sunday before his expected departure on Monday. Biden first deployed the "lying, dog-faced pony soldier" phrase on the 2020 campaign trail in New Hampshire, explaining Sunday it is a quote that his brother likes to use from a John Wayne cowboy movie.
Biden took five questions from women during the press conference.
"I hope you didn't think that calling only on women would get you softballs," one reporter said.
"If you sent me a softball, I wouldn't know what to do with it. I'd probably strike out even worse," he replied.
During earlier separate remarks Sunday, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong described United States-Vietnam relations as having improved in "leaps and bounds," now being "elevated to a new height," though he emphasized the importance of "non-interference in domestic affairs."
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Biden similarly spoke of the relationship's evolution and overcoming "the pain of the past," a reference to the Vietnam War, as he underscored future cooperation regarding semiconductor supply chains, trade, investment, climate, clean energy, global health, cancer, and HIV/AIDS, in addition to security, including countering human trafficking.
"I also raised human rights as a priority for both my administration and the American people," he said.