‘The special relationship will be safe in my hands’
With the US Democratic nomination contest narrowing, Joe Biden is intent on edging ahead
JOE BIDEN has promised the special relationship would be safe in his hands and that Nato would be critical to his presidency if he defeats Donald Trump.
Speaking to The Sunday Telegraph, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination indicated that he would make relations with America’s key ally a top priority.
The former US vice president also appeared to criticise the campaign run by Jeremy Corbyn, suggesting he would not make the same “mistake” of appealing only to core supporters.
After addressing a small group of voters at an inn in rural New Hampshire, Mr Biden told The Sunday Telegraph: “The United States is coming back. England still is, still is, in a special relationship, notwithstanding the way President Trump keeps talking about Europe and the world. Nato is critical.”
He added: “England is going through a very difficult time right now. And we are not going to make the mistake of deciding you can’t talk to the middle of the country, like happened in your country.”
Mr Biden spoke as the nomination contest appeared to have crystallised into a two-horse race between himself, the arch-moderate, and Bernie Sanders, the democratic socialist. A CNN national poll this week had the two men, standard bearers of the two wings of their party, in a statistical dead heat following a recent surge by Mr Sanders.
A New York Times poll showed Mr Sanders ahead by seven points in Iowa, the first state to vote on Feb 3.
New Hampshire is the second state to vote, on Feb 11, and Mr Biden is targeting his efforts there. A Boston Globe poll showed the two candidates tied, in a state Mr Sanders won by 22 points over Hillary Clinton in 2016.
As a US senator, Mr Sanders is currently having to sit as a juror in Mr Trump’s impeachment trial in
Washington for six days a week. He has appeared increasingly vexed at his enforced absence from the campaign trail.
Mr Biden took the opportunity to step into his rival’s back yard by going to Claremont, New Hampshire, a former mill town across the Sugar River from Vermont, Mr Sanders’ home state.
Under a timber-beamed roof at the Common Man Inn, Mr Biden, 77, dressed in a grey suit and open-necked blue shirt, spoke for an hour to a small group of voters.
Unlike other Democrats, who have offered radical ideas on climate change and healthcare, Mr Biden hammered home the message that he is best placed to defeat Mr Trump because he can appeal to independent voters, and even moderate Republicans.
In a gaffe-free performance, mostly without notes, he cast himself as a unifier-in-chief, the only candidate who could mend a bitterly divided nation, restore America’s standing in the world, and “get big things done by reaching across the aisle”.
He said: “They [other Democrat candidates] say Joe Biden used to work with Republicans, but he doesn’t understand this new Republican Party, you can’t talk to them ...
“Well, I’ve been the object of this new Republican Party’s affections for some time. Donald Trump has spent millions telling lies about me. They’ve slandered me, and slandered my only surviving son. But I can’t hold grudges. A president can’t hold grudges. A president has to heal.
“Character in this country is on the ballot, the character of our leaders.
“We’re poking a stick in the eyes of our allies. Our moral authority has been sapped, and our credibility has been shot.”
For months there have been predictions that Mr Biden’s campaign, with his centrist policies, calls for compromise and faltering
TV debate performances, would be crushed by the Twitter-fuelled noise on the party’s Left wing. But with voting due to start in just days, he is still standing.
“I thought he was much better in person than in the TV debates,” said Leanne Morten, 63, a retired teacher and undecided voter at the Common Man Inn. “Very personable and passionate. He really connects to what you’re saying. I think he’s a nice guy.”
If he is to win the nomination, and the general election, then Mr Biden must take beleaguered former industrial towns like Claremont, which were key to Mr Trump’s success. Claremont, which has a population of 13,000, used to be a booming mill town. In the late 19th century it was doing so well it built an opera house. But now a massive dilapidated factory with smashed windows looms over it. The plant used to make equipment for the coal industry. An ink factory and a shoe factory closed down years ago. Part of Mr Biden’s appeal is that he came from a similar place, the struggling rust-belt city of Scranton, Pennsylvania. In Claremont his message about unity and civility appeared to resonate.
With the volume dialled up to 11 on both sides a new silent majority – one fed up with all the rhetoric, and not on Twitter – might just send him to the White House.
‘We are not going to make the mistake of deciding you can’t talk to the middle of the country’