Biden says that Trump failed to handle Putin
Joe Biden took aggressive aim Tuesday at President Donald Trump’s fitness for the Oval Office, suggesting he has abdicated his duty to protect U.S. troops facing Russian threats abroad and American citizens facing a pandemic and economic calamity at home.
Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, told reporters Trump has “a lot to answer for” concerning news reports that he was advised as early as March 2019 of intelligence that suggested Russia was offering bounties to the Taliban for the deaths of Americans. And, in prepared remarks, Biden accused Trump of “waving the white flag” as coronavirus cases spike nationwide.
The one-two punch reflects the core of Biden’s candidacy, which he built on the argument that Trump is morally and temperamentally unfit to lead the nation. He sought again Tuesday to draw sharp contrasts with his own experience and style as a former vice president and longtime senator.
Biden stopped short of saying Trump had violated his oath of office or should face any consequences from Congress based on any inaction on potential Russian bounties. But he called it “an absolute dereliction of duty if any of this is even remotely true,” and, in that case, he added, “the public should, unrelated to my running, conclude that this man is unfit to be president of the United States of America.”
The Associated Press has reported that at least one of Trump’s daily intelligence briefings included evidence of Russian bounties. Trump has insisted that he was never briefed on such details because they weren’t credible.
Biden said Tuesday he has not had a classified briefing on the material or on Trump’s handling of it, but he said he may request one soon. Major-party nominees receive daily intelligence briefings, but Biden is not yet the official nominee, and he noted that he no longer has access to the same classified information that he could regularly review during his two terms as vice president.
Biden throughout the campaign has hammered Trump for “cozying up” to Russian President Vladimir Putin and other autocrats, and Biden warned as recently as Monday that Putin’s long-term goal is to destabilize NATO and Western alliances.
Biden said Trump should have called his military and national security team together to reconcile any intelligence discrepancies on the Russian bounty reports. “He should have, at a minimum, picked up the phone and said, ’Vladimir, old buddy, if any of this is true ... you’ve got a big problem,” Biden said.
The 77-year-old Biden also used Trump’s explanations – that he didn’t know about any such intelligence reports – to turn the tables on the president’s frequent mockery of Biden’s mental acuity. Biden said Trump, 74, “doesn’t seem to be cognitively aware,” and he embraced the possibility of general election debates.