In her new book What Happened, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote that Russian President Vladimir Putin has no soul. But former Vice President Joe Biden? He actually said it right to the man’s face.

During a speech at an awards gala Thursday night in Washington, Biden recalled the last time he met with Putin in Russia.

“[W]hen I was last with Putin, and we were in his office alone, and he wanted to show me his magnificent office. And it was. And I had my arms up, I said, ‘It’s amazing what capitalism will do!'” Biden said.

Indeed, Biden claims he didn’t hold back. No George Costanza-like after-the-fact “jerkstore” insults for him. He let it fly right on the spot, right to Putin’s face.

We were coincidentally about this far apart looking at each other and I said — and I wasn’t being a wise guy — I said, “Mr. President I’m looking in your eyes and you have no soul.” And he looked back at me, he said, ‘We understand one another.’ It’s important to understand. Not to threaten. To understand the other, where the other person is coming from.

We have no clue about how Biden could possibly consider his remark not to be threatening. Truly. We are flummoxed.

We’d spend more time analyzing this, but the ocean just called. They’re running out of shrimp.

Watch above, via MSNBC.

[featured image via screengrab]

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