WASHINGTON — Warning of a potential surge in anti-Americanism, Vice President Joe Biden tore into Donald Trump’s views on foreign policy on Monday, urging the country not to follow the presumptive Republican nominee down a path of isolationism and bigotry.
Though Biden framed his speech to the Center for New American Security speech as advice for the next president, his remarks amounted to a point-by-point rebuttal of Trump on immigration, terrorism and relations with Russia. Biden cautioned against policies, embraced by Trump, that the vice president said would make the U.S. and its neighborhood poorer, less democratic and less secure.
“Wielding the politics of fear and intolerance, like proposals to ban Muslims from entering the United States or slandering entire religious communities as complicit in terrorism, calls into question America’s status as the greatest democracy in the history of the world,” Biden said.
Biden’s speech to the Washington think tank marked his most concerted and lengthy rebuke to date of Trump, and comes as Biden and President Barack Obama are increasingly inserting themselves into the election in an attempt to stop Trump. Earlier this month both Biden and Obama endorsed Hillary Clinton, and both Democrats are expected to start campaigning aggressively for her in the coming days.
Although Biden didn’t mention Trump by name, his intended target was clear. On Sunday, Trump went beyond his previous calls for temporarily banning Muslim immigration by suggesting the U.S. should consider profiling Muslims already in the U.S. The Republican has also called for reinstating waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods to try to prevent terrorist attacks.
Biden said that “some of the rhetoric I’m hearing sounds designed to radicalize all 1.4 billion” Muslims around the world.
“Adopting the tactics of our enemies — using torture, threatening to kill innocent family members, indiscriminately bombing civilian populations — not only violates our values, it’s deeply, deeply damaging to our security,” Biden said.
Biden, who considered running for president before bowing out last year, said the country was at an “inflection point” in which hard-fought gains of the past several years risk being squandered. He dismissed those who “seek sound bite solutions in a world defined by complexity,” in another clear swipe at Trump.
The vice president also sought to undercut Trump’s argument that if elected, the U.S. would enjoy a more constructive and friendly relationship with Russia.
“Embracing (President Vladimir) Putin at a time of renewed Russian aggression, I believe, could call into question America’s long-standing commitment to a Europe whole, free and at peace,” Biden said.
