‘Partisan’ Biden can’t be trusted by unionists, says Allister
US President Joe Biden has once again shown he cannot be trusted by unionists, TUV leader Jim Allister has said.
He was speaking after Mr Biden blamed “the Brits” for leaving his great grandfather with no choice but to leave Ireland.
Mr Biden, who can trace family back to Mayo and Louth, was speaking on Thursday evening at his first formal news conference since his term began.
The 78-year-old Democrat is fiercely proud of his Irish heritage, and has strongly supported moves to prevent a hard border in Ireland.
Yesterday Mr Allister said it sounded like Mr Biden was “reading too many Sinn Fein fantasy novels”.
“I think there may be a bit of disconnect in his mental processes,” the North Antrim MLA said. “He’s just increasingly demonstrated that he is so partisan as to be beyond any respect or trust from unionism.”
DUP MP Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said: “Not for the first time President Biden shows a fairly narrow view of history. Even the use of the term ‘the Brits’ is not the peace-making language which the President should be using. He should be giving a lead in respecting all traditions and encouraging reconciliation.
“Rather than joining others in rewriting history, the US administration should be focused on helping Northern Ireland build a shared future for everyone that lives here.”
Last week DUP MP Sammy Wilson branded Mr Biden a “bigoted ignoramus” on Russian state-controlled news channel RT. Mr Wilson was pictured outside Westminster with fellow DUP MPS Ian Paisley and Paul Girvan holding a Trump 2020 flag before the last US election.
When asked at the press conference about children at the Us-mexico border, Mr Biden referred to his ancestors when talking about the difficult choices migrants have to make.
“When my great grandfather got on a coffin ship in the Irish Sea, expectation was, was he going to live long enough on that
ship to get to the United States of America? But they left because of what the Brits had been doing,” he said. “They were in real, real trouble. They didn’t want to
leave. But they had no choice.
“I can’t guarantee we’re going to solve everything, but I can guarantee we can make everything better.”