Former US President Joe Biden questioned ‘what the hell’s going on here?’ as he condemned Donald Trump’s approach to foreign policy and his disregard for other countries
Joe Biden has criticised Donald Trump over his approach to foreign policy – and said his spat with Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office was “beneath America”.
The former US President questioned “what the hell’s going on here?” as he condemned Mr Trump’s calls for the US to make Canada the 51st state, to take back the Panama Canal and to gain control of Greenland. He said he’ll let “history judge” Mr Trump’s first 100 days back in the White House and said he thinks the Republican party is “waking up” to who they have as their leader.
Asked what he thought of Mr Trump’s infamous row with Ukrainian President Mr Zelensky in the White House in February, Mr Biden said: “I found it sort of beneath America, in the way that took place and the way we talk about now: ‘Oh, it’s the Gulf of America. Maybe we’re going to have to take back Panama. Maybe we need to acquire Greenland. Maybe Canada should be the [51st state]?
“What the hell’s going on here? What President ever talks like that? That’s not who we are. We’re about freedom, democracy, opportunity, not about confiscation.”
READ MORE: Donald Trump given stern Oval Office rebuke by PM Mark Carney – ‘Canada is not for sale’
During the wide-ranging interview with BBC presenter Nick Robinson, aired ahead of the 80th anniversary of VE Day, Mr Biden said he believed the world was facing its greatest threat to democracy since World War II. He said Mr Trump’s insistence Ukraine would have to give up territory if it wants peace was “modern-day appeasement” – and said anybody who believed “thug” Vladimir Putin would be satisfied was “foolish”.
Appeasement most commonly refers to former British PM Neville Chamberlain’s failed policy of appeasement to Nazi Germany, in which he tried to negotiate with Hitler to avoid an all-out war.
Speaking about Mr Trump’s approach to Russian President Putin, Mr Biden said: “It is modern-day appeasement. Look, listen to what Putin said when he talked about going from Kyiv into Ukraine, and why. He believed it is part of Mother Russia. He believes in historical rights to Ukraine. He talks about Eastern Europe. What this man wants to do is re-establish the Warsaw Pact.
“He can’t stand the fact that the Russian dictatorship that he runs, that the Soviet Union, has collapsed, and anybody thinks he’s going to stop is just foolish. I just don’t understand how people think that if we allow a dictator, a thug, to decide he’s going to take significant portions of the land that aren’t his, and that’s going to satisfy him, I don’t quite understand.”
The Democrat politician also questioned Mr Trump for wanting to “walk away” from the Nato alliance. “I’m worried that Europe is going to lose confidence of in the certainty of America and the leadership of America in the world to deal with not only Nato but other matters that have a consequence.”
Elsewhere Mr Biden said he doesn’t think it matters he left it so late in the US Presidential campaign to stand down as the Democrats’ candidate, when he was then replaced by Kamala Harris. “I don’t think it would have mattered. We left at a time when we had a good candidate…
“Things moved so quickly that it made it difficult to walk away. And it was a hard decision. I think it was the right decision. I think that… it was just a difficult decision.”
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