Washington (CNN) Vice President Joe Biden ratcheted up US rhetoric on Moscow Wednesday night, for the first time calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a 'dictator.' "I don't want to psychoanalyze Mr. Putin," Obama told a Buzzfeed reporter a few months earlier . Earnest continued, "You'd be hard-pressed to draw a distinction between the word that Vice President Biden used and the language that was included in the State Department." "We cannot elect a man who belittles our closest allies while embracing dictators like Vladimir Putin," said Biden, "a man who confuses bluster with strength. In calling the Russian president a "dictator," Biden is echoing criticism lobbed at the leader by his domestic political opponents, who say Putin is tightening his grip on power through increasingly authoritarian tactics.

Source: CNN July 28, 2016 23:37 UTC