Biden Warns Threat of Putin Using Tactical Nuclear Weapons Is ‘Real’

(Left) President Joe Biden waits to speak as he visits the Sportrock Climbing Centers in Alexandria, Va., on May 28, 2021. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images); (Right) Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during a meeting with members of the Council of Legislators of the Federal Assembly, at the Tauride Palace, in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on April 27, 2021. Alexei Danichev/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images

President Joe Biden warned this week that the threat of Russian President Vladimir Putin using tactical nuclear weapons is “real,” days after Moscow announced that the first warheads have arrived in Belarus amid international condemnation of the move.

“When I was out here about two years ago saying I worried about the Colorado River drying up, everybody looked at me like I was crazy,” Biden told a group of donors in California on Monday. “They looked at me like when I said I worry about Putin using tactical nuclear weapons. It’s real.”