Biden Tangles With Finnish Reporter Over NATO: 'You Can't Tell Me Whether You're Going to Be Able to Go Home Tonight' (July 13, 2023)

President Biden flew to Helsinki on July 13, 2023, to celebrate NATO’s newest member and promised Finland that America’s commitment to the alliance was rock solid. Within a minute he was telling a Finnish reporter that “no one can guarantee the future.” When she raised it again, he shot back: “You can’t tell me whether you’re going to be able to go home tonight.”

The exchange came at a joint press conference with Finnish President Sauli Niinistö at the Presidential Palace, after a U.S.-Nordic leaders summit and three months after Finland formally joined NATO [1][2][3]. The video above shows the moment. Quotes are from the official White House transcript published in the Daily Compilation of Presidential Documents.

”Rock Solid”

Biden opened with a pledge. “Mr. President, as your ally, we want the people of Finland to know the United States is committed to Finland, committed to NATO, and those commitments are rock solid; that we will defend every inch of NATO territory, and that includes Finland, obviously,” he said [1].

His opening statement had its own slips. “In Vilnius, NATO met with 33 nations for the first—31 nations for the first time,” he said. Thanking Iceland’s leader, whose name the White House transcript corrects to “Jakobsdóttir,” he said “of Ireland,” then explained: “You can tell that’s a Freudian slip; I’m thinking of home. The daughter of Iceland” [1].

He also looked ahead to Sweden. “Soon, it will be 32 allies, thanks to an agreement with Turkey to move Sweden’s accession protocols forward,” Biden said [1].

”I Absolutely Guarantee It”

Niinistö gave the first question to Iida Tikka of YLE, Finland’s public broadcaster [1]. She told Biden that “the political volatility of U.S. remains a big worry for European partners” and noted that “a bipartisan group of Senators has repeatedly failed to pass through Senate a bill that would prevent the U.S. Presidents in the future from withdrawing from NATO without Senate’s approval” [1].

Biden cut in before she finished. “Sorry, what, I’m sorry? I didn’t hear the last part of your question,” he said. She repeated it and asked: “What actions will you take to assure Finland that the U.S. will remain a reliable NATO partner for decades to come?” [1]

“I absolutely guarantee it. There is no question,” Biden answered. “There’s overwhelming support from the American people. There’s overwhelming support from the Members of the Congress, both House and Senate. In both parties, notwithstanding the fact there are some extreme elements of one party, we will stand together” [1].

Fox News read the “extreme elements” line as a swipe at Republicans he had branded “extreme MAGA Republicans” over their skepticism of aid to Ukraine [4].

”No One Can Guarantee the Future”

Then came the hedge. “And so this is—you know, no one can guarantee the future, but this is the best bet anyone could make,” Biden said [1].

Tikka caught it. Turning to Niinistö with her second question, she said: “Hearing this answer that no one can guarantee a future, are you worried that the political instability in U.S. will cause issues in the alliance in the future?” [1]

“You Can’t Tell Me Whether You’re Going to Be Able to Go Home Tonight”

The question was for the Finnish president. Biden answered it anyway.

“Let me be clear: I didn’t say we didn’t guarantee—we couldn’t guarantee the future. You can’t tell me whether you’re going to be able to go home tonight. No one can be sure what they’re going to do,” he said [1].

“I’m saying, as sure as anything can possibly be said about American foreign policy, we will stay connected to NATO—connected to NATO, beginning, middle, and end. We’re a transatlantic partnership. That’s what I’ve said” [1].

Niinistö smoothed it over with a joke. “It seems that the President has answered your problems,” he said, to laughter. He added that he had met “about 50 people from Congress and Senate” during Finland’s accession and that “I have no reason to doubt about U.S.A. policies in the future” [1].

Fox News summed it up: Biden “appeared to say the U.S. could not guarantee its commitment to NATO, quickly correcting himself” [4].

The White House Blames an “Echoey Room”

It was not the only stumble. Biden struggled to hear at least three questions during the short question-and-answer session, Fox News reported, and the White House blamed the confusion on the “large echoey room” where the press conference took place [5].

The official transcript backs up the trouble hearing. Biden asked Tikka to repeat her question, and when The Wall Street Journal’s Andrew Restuccia followed up about a possible stalemate in Ukraine, Biden replied, “I’m sorry?” before Restuccia asked again [1].

Helsinki was the last day of a trip that began in London and included two days of NATO summit meetings in Vilnius, Lithuania, according to the White House pool reports. It was the first U.S. presidential visit to the city since Trump met Vladimir Putin there five years earlier [2].

The Bill the Reporter Asked About

The bill Tikka described was the bipartisan Kaine-Rubio measure to stop any president from pulling the United States out of NATO on his own. Six days after Helsinki, the Senate added it to the annual defense bill by a vote of 65-28, with 18 Republicans voting yes, among them Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida, Ted Cruz of Texas, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and John Kennedy of Louisiana [6].

Military Times reported that the measure was “a precautionary measure against former President Donald Trump’s potential return to the White House” [6]. Trump had said that week on Fox News that he told NATO leaders during his first term, “I will not protect you from Russia,” if they were “delinquent” on their contributions [6].

The provision became law as Section 1250A of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024, which Biden signed on Dec. 22, 2023. It says the president “shall not suspend, terminate, denounce, or withdraw” the United States from the North Atlantic Treaty except with the consent of two-thirds of senators present or “pursuant to an Act of Congress” [7].

By the Numbers

31: Finland became NATO’s 31st member on April 4, 2023, after all 30 member parliaments ratified its accession [3].
32: Sweden followed on March 7, 2024, bringing NATO to 32 countries [8].
65-28: The Senate vote on July 19, 2023, adding the NATO-withdrawal limit to the defense bill [6].
Two-thirds: The share of senators present who must consent before a president can withdraw from NATO under the 2023 law [7].
At least 3: Questions Biden struggled to hear in Helsinki, according to Fox News [5].
About 50: Members of Congress Niinistö said he met while Finland was joining the alliance [1].

What Happened Next

Biden’s “best bet” line aged in an unexpected way. By June 2025, President Trump was back in the White House and sitting at the NATO table in The Hague [9].

There, NATO’s 32 members agreed to Trump’s headline demand to spend 5% of their economies on defense [11]. Under the Hague Summit Declaration, allies committed to invest 5% of GDP a year on defense and security by 2035, including at least 3.5% on core defense [10]. The leaders also reaffirmed their “ironclad commitment to collective defence as enshrined in Article 5” [10].

Trump called the spending deal “a monumental win for the United States” and signed off on the declaration’s collective defense pledge, AFP reported [11].