By Felicia Sonmez | Washington Post
Joe Biden’s campaign swung back at President Donald Trump on Tuesday, calling his attacks on the former vice president while traveling in Japan over the Memorial Day weekend “beneath the dignity of the office.”
Members of both parties had criticized Trump in recent days after the president tweeted that he has “confidence” in North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and quoted North Korean state-run media’s assessment that Biden is a “low IQ individual.”
But Biden’s campaign had refrained from weighing in until shortly after Trump touched down in the United States on Tuesday afternoon.
“The President’s comments are beneath the dignity of the office,” Biden’s deputy campaign manager, Kate Bedingfield, said in a statement issued moments after Marine One landed back at the South Lawn of the White House. “To be on foreign soil, on Memorial Day, and to side repeatedly with a murderous dictator against a fellow American and former Vice President speaks for itself.”
Bedingfield added that Trump’s actions are “part of a pattern of embracing autocrats at the expense of our institutions – whether taking [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s word at face value in Helsinki or exchanging ‘love letters’ with Kim Jong Un.”
Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtagh responded by saying it was “rich” of the Biden campaign to criticize Trump, considering that Biden himself had “bashed” the president while on foreign soil at the Munich Security Conference earlier this year.
“If you want an example of ‘siding with a murderous dictator,’ how about the disastrous Iran nuclear deal?” Murtagh said in a statement. “Or failing to follow through on the ‘red line’ with Syria? From the Iraq war to the Russia reset, Joe Biden has been wrong on virtually every foreign policy call in the last four decades. Just ask former Obama Defense Secretary Robert Gates.”
Gates wrote in his memoir that Biden has “been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades,” although he recently told CBS’ Margaret Brennan that he and the former vice president “agreed on some key issues” during the Obama administration.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders defended Trump’s comments Sunday. Asked during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” whether Americans should be concerned that Trump is “essentially siding with a murderous, authoritarian dictator,” Sanders responded: “The president’s not siding with that. But I think they agree in their assessment of former Vice President Joe Biden.”
During a joint news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday, Trump attributed the North Korean media statement about Biden’s “low IQ” to Kim.
“He probably is, based on his record,” Trump said of Biden. “I think I agree with him [Kim] on that.”
Among those criticizing Trump for his comments was Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., a military veteran who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Kinzinger cited the Memorial Day holiday in taking issue with Trump’s message.
“It’s Memorial Day Weekend and you’re taking a shot at Biden while praising a dictator,” Kinzinger tweeted on Sunday. “This is just plain wrong.”
A Biden campaign official said Tuesday that the campaign held off on sending out a statement earlier in response to Trump’s remarks because the vice president “is committed to respecting the sacred purpose of Memorial Day.”
