A sleepy President Joe Biden saw his rambling Vietnam press conference brought to a sudden end on Sunday night with his mic cut and jazz music playing him off the stage, like he went too long in an awards speech.
Biden was mid-flow and answering questions from journalists when he was interrupted and forced to shuffle away and head backstage.
'We talked about stability, we talked about the Third World, excuse me, the Southern Hemisphere has access to change. It wasn't confrontational at all....' Biden said as he rambled on.
Suddenly, the booming voice of his press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, could be heard butting in.
'Thank you everybody. This ends the press conference. Thanks everyone,' she said as she brought the presser to a close.
All the while, Biden continued to speak, not realizing his mic had been muted.
In another bizarre twist, jazz music then began to play over the loudspeaker, with the 80-year-old still seemingly trying to answer questions as he continued to speak into the microphone.
As the president tried to answer a few more questions, the music grew louder prompting Biden to put away his leather-backed folder and shuffle offstage, disappearing behind a black curtain.
Biden whispered, he walked about the stage and he used that now-famous phrase 'lying dog faced pony soldier' during the 26-minute engagement with the press, using a set list of reporters to call on.
After spending two days in India for the G20 Leaders' Summit, Biden jetted to Vietnam Sunday to upgrade the countries' diplomatic ties and ended the day with a press conference.
In what was supposed to be a show of stamina - Biden is circumnavigating the globe in five days - the 80-year-old commander-in-chief joked about not knowing if it was morning or night and ended the presser event by saying, 'I'm going to go to bed.'
The press conference started more than an hour late and kicked off by the president acknowledging that his aides told him who he would be calling on.
'They gave me five people here,' Biden said, returning to his custom of both calling from, and speaking about, the list apologetically.
'I'm just following my orders here,' he said at another point, as he looked at his list to call another news organization or name, as reporters in the audience yelled and waved their hands frantically to be called on.
