RIYADH (Dispatches) – A clip from Saudi Arabian state television show Studio 22 began circulating on Twitter on Tuesday morning depicting U.S. President Joe Biden as old and incapable. The minute-long clip pokes fun at U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Studio 22 is a comedy show aired by the Middle East Broadcasting Center (MBC), a media network owned by the Saudi regime.
The overarching theme of the clip is that President Biden is old. The character is obviously unaware of his surroundings and prone to falling asleep mid-sentence. Consequently, the audience sees Harris, played by a male actor in drag, telling the President what to say and do. At the end of the clip, Biden finally falls asleep and Harris literally puppets his unconscious body, screaming, “clap for the president!”
Biden has earned a dubious reputation globally for his gaffes, which often land him in hot water.
The skit comes as relations between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia have hit a new low under the Biden administration, with Riyadh continuing to rebuff Biden’s demands to increase its oil exports to contain soaring oil prices amid Russia’s military operation in Ukraine.
Their relations have soured over the Biden administration’s dwindling support for the Saudi-led war on Yemen and Washington’s bid to rejoin the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
Biden administration had also published an assessment by U.S. intelligence agencies that concluded Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman’s direct involvement in the murder of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.
The Biden administration, however, has stopped short of penalizing the de-facto ruler in Riyadh.