Joe Biden: Trump is unusual, ripping US’s soul out

Former US Vice President and current Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has said that President Donald Trump is the most unusual politician he has ever worked with and that the president is ripping the soul out of the United States.

Biden was talking on the latest episode of CNBC.com‘s “Speakeasy with John Harwood” podcast on Thursday. The former vice president sat down with Harwood, who serves as CNBC’s editor at large, to discuss a range of topics, including taxes, health care, trade and President Trump’s standing among global leaders.

According to a podcast episode transcript sent to US and Global News by CNBC owner company NBCUniversal, Biden called the president “unusual politician” and one who “is ripping the soul out of this country” in response to Harwood’s question asking whether he thinks the president does not understand geopolitics or is purposely helping Russia and Putin because he is compromised in some way.

“All I know is the result’s the same,” answered Joe Biden. “I can’t read his mind. He has done things that seem to me to be completely contrary to reality. When he stands before the whole world at a G 20 meeting and says that I believe Vladimir Putin did not interfere in our elections and these 18 intelligence agencies that work for us, in fact, do. They think he did, but I think they’re wrong. What is that about?”

When Harwood said, “That’s the question,” Biden replied, “I don’t know. But the result is the same. It has drastically weakened our standing around the world. Poll came out not long ago, Gallup and Pew showing that we ranked just below China in respect and just above Russia. What’s going on? Look, when we are not leading – we’ve led the world by the example, not just of our power, but the power of our example. And when he – there’s three things I’ve learned. I’ve learned Vladimir Putin doesn’t want me to be president. That’s why he’s spending a lot of money on these bots trying to tell any lies about me. I’ve learned that Kim Jong-un thinks I am a rabid dog, should be beaten to death with a stick, and he gets a love letter from Trump. And I learned that Donald Trump doesn’t want me to be the nominee. I cannot – this President is the most unusual politician I’ve ever worked with. And he doesn’t seem to have any sense of who we are. He’s ripping the soul out of this country. I mean, he really is. I sometimes sit back and wonder, ‘Whoa, I don’t know whether’ – well, I shouldn’t speculate because I don’t know, to be honest.”

Biden has been on the campaign trail in Iowa this week. Although he has lagged behind Democratic presidential rivals Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren in recent voter polls in Iowa, the state that will hold the first-in-the-nation nominating contest in February next year, he has consistently topped in national polling averages.

Earlier during the interview, Harwood asked whether Biden thought Trump believed NATO leaders respected the United States or the president feared that he was not respected.

“You’ve got an ad out today that says the world’s laughing at President Trump,” Harwood started asking the question. “Very strong ad on the wake of this recent NATO meeting. Do you think – and President Trump responded not directly to the ad, but he said, ‘All we found over there was deep respect for the United States,’ in the meeting. Do you think he actually believes that, or do you think that privately, he fears that he’s being mocked, ridiculed, that he’s not respected?”

Joe Biden replied and said that he thinks Trump knows it.

“How could he not know that? How could he not know that? He turned around and he called the Prime Minister of Canada two faced. He turned around – the idea he doesn’t know that. I mean, look, this President thinks if he says the lie long enough and often enough and repeats it enough, somehow people will believe it. Look, the reason why is – I’m not happy that the President of the United States got mocked. But what it says is we lack the respect of the rest of the world that we had in spades before,” was Joe Biden’s reply.

Harwood then asked why did he think the president wanted to help Putin.

Joe Biden said, “I don’t think the President of the United States today has any notion of geopolitical concerns. I don’t think he – look, this is the guy who said – and I thought at first it was kind of a joke, but it wasn’t. Remember he said, seriously, a couple of months into his administration, ‘You know this job’s harder than running a real estate empire.’ He knows nothing about foreign policy. He knows nothing about nuclear deterrent. He knows nothing. I mean he has demonstrated – and look what has happened. You know, I actually, privately, encouraged a number of generals, senior state department people, foreign policy experts to stay in the administration. Don’t leave. Look what’s happened.”

The video of the full interview can be watched – and the transcript of the interview read – on CNBC’s website, here.

Image credit -  Michael Stokes (Source) (CC BY 2.0)