Joined by Hillary Clinton in Scranton on Tuesday, Vice President Joe Biden called out Donald Trump, saying the Republican presidential nominee is making America less safe.
Biden pointed to Trump’s dismissal of our European allies, his comments on Ukraine, his praise for Saddam Hussein, his support of torture, his slander of the Muslim parents of a Gold Star family, and his dangerously irresponsible lies about President Obama and ISIL to emphasize the security dangers of a Trump presidency.
Biden’s remarks on Trump’s national security proposals are transcribed below:
“Look at the people who have come out, scores and scores of the most prominent Republican thinkers in the national security field. They have come out in both political parties and party. He has no idea what he’s talking about. Even confronted with the facts, he doesn’t want to learn them. Few times he tries to deal with the facts, he reveals a profound misunderstanding of what to say. Just listen for a second. Listen to him. He belittles our closest allies in this hemisphere and in Europe. Nations that stand with us, are part of our security network, that are with us when we address every international challenge, those who fought and bled alongside us for decades, he wants to toss those relationships aside, like the ones that – like his failed business ventures or something. In the meantime, he talks cavalierly about encouraging other nations, as Hillary pointed out, to develop nuclear weapons, as if nuclear war is some trivial affair. Does he not understand we wrote Japan’s constitution to say they could not be a nuclear power? Where was he when – in school? Someone who lacks this judgment cannot be trusted. There’s a guy that follows me right back here, has the nuclear codes. So God forbid anything happened to the President and I had to make a decision. The codes are with me all – he is not qualified to know the code. He can’t be trusted.
I was proud. My son Beau served for a year in Iraq, came back a highly decorated soldier. I must tell you. I must tell you had Donald Trump been president, I would have thrown my body in front of him – no, I really mean it – to keep him from going if the judgment was based on Trump’s decision.
Every president since Harry Truman has looked toward Europe whole, free, and at peace. One of the most consequential people right now who is trying to undo that is a man that Donald Trump says he admires. Now, I’m not big on the character assassination stuff. I really mean that. If you look at everything, any campaign I’ve ever run, I’m just trying to – like that old program of Walter Brennan, ‘Just the facts, ma’am, nothing but the facts.’ Oh, that was Joe Friday, actually. But he says he admires Vladimir Putin. No, no, no, no, no. It’s more than – it’s more than the ‘Ew’ about it. Here’s the deal. What is Putin’s objective, as Hillary knows as well as anyone, dealing with Putin as I have and the President has and John Kerry, Putin is determined to crack NATO and crack the European Alliance. That is his overarching, overwhelming interest.
I’m heading from here, getting on a plane and flying to Kosovo, then to Serbia, and then I am going to the Baltic States. You know one of the reasons I am going is to make sure – to reassure those who are members of NATO and the Baltic States we mean what we say, we mean what we say, the sacred alliance of 60 years because they’re worried.
Listen to his comments about Ukraine. He assures us Russia will not move on Ukraine. But if he could not understand it, they’ve already moved on Ukraine and occupy Crimea. This guy’s shame has no limits. He’s even gone so far as to ask Putin and Russia to conduct cyberattacks against the United States of America. No, no. Even if he is joking, which he’s not, even if he’s joking, what an outrageous thing to say.
Look, folks. These are not isolated examples. He’s even showered praise on Saddam Hussein, one of the vilest dictators of the 20th century, a man who repeatedly backed terror attacks against Israel because he was supposedly – the reason he admires him – he was a killer of terrorists. That’s why he likes Saddam. He would have loved Stalin. He would have loved Stalin.
Look. This says a lot about his approach. It explains why he’s so often embraced tactics of terrorist enemies themselves – religious intolerance, casting entire communities culpable for the acts of a few in the community. Torture, when he knows it’s illegal, and says he would still order it even though the military commanders said they would not obey his orders. When can you think of, ever, in history where military commanders have said, before a man or woman is elected, that they would not follow his orders? Threatening to kill innocent family members of suspects. Indiscriminate bombing, what he calls for. That’s how anyone hoping to lead this great democracy in the world should behave?
Look. He likes autocrats. He wills the politics of fear and intolerance, calling for a ban on Muslims in the United States, slandering proud Muslim parents of a Gold Star family who paid the ultimate sacrifice, threatening to send American citizens to Guantanamo – oh, I tell you, this guy’s okay. Look. Trump’s ideas are not only profoundly wrong, they’re very dangerous and they’re very un-American. They reveal a profound ignorance of our constitution. It’s a recipe for playing into the hands – and I will end this because you’ve been standing so long – it’s a recipe for playing into the hands of terrorists and their propaganda.
Last year ISIL’s top leader, who we’ve been tracking since we got bin Laden, Hillary, me, John, everyone else, the President – his name is al-Baghdadi. And he revealed the goal of ISIL. He just said it straight out. You can go on a website. He said, their goal is to ‘compel the crusaders to actively destroy the grey zones themselves,’ meaning anywhere where Christians and Muslims live, he calls a grey zone. He said their objective is to actively destroy that grey zone. Muslims in the West, he says, will have to quickly find themselves between two choices: either apostatize, or immigrate to the Islamic State, and thereby escape prosecution. How does he make the case? By pointing out that no Muslim is welcome in the West. ISIL wants to manufacture a clash of civilizations between us versus them. Trump is trying to give them exactly what they want.
Last week he stood in front of a crowd in Florida and said President Obama founded a terrorist organization, ISIL. Now, look. Look. This I really should end with. That’s an outrageous statement. But let me tell you why it’s a dangerous statement. As he might say, the bad guys are listening. Yesterday the head of Hezbollah, a terrorist organization, Iran’s top terrorist surrogate and a direct threat to our ally Israel, repeated Trump’s claim in the entire Muslim world and around the world that President Obama founded ISIL. You say, well, what difference does that make?
Here’s exactly what the leader of Hezbollah said, referring to Trump’s accusation. He said this. ‘This is not’ – this is a spokesman for ISIL – I mean, excuse me, for Hezbollah –‘This is not a simple speech,’ referring to Trump. I’m quoting him. ‘This is an American presidential candidate. This was spoken on behalf of the American Republican Party. And he’ – meaning Trump – ‘has the data and documents to back it up.’
If my son were still in Iraq, and I say to all those who are there, the threat to their life has gone up a couple clicks. It’s gone up a couple clicks. You saw what’s happening in Turkey, where some in Turkey are accusing us of being part of the coup attempt. Ladies and gentlemen, does he have any idea of the adverse consequences these outlandish comments have on our allies, or friends, and the physical safety of our troops? Trump is already making our country less safe.”
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