After being away from public eyes of the media since leaving office in January, Former Vice President Joe Biden has resurfaced in an unusual manner.
In an op-ed for The New York Times, Biden who is set to release his new book after this fall dubbed Trump’s actions so far in his tenure as undermining the United States in the eyes of the world.
He slammed Trump’s latest act of rescinding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) which he called a “betrayal of an unnecessary cruelty that further undermines America’s standing in the world.” He also criticised his response to the Charlottesville, Va., attack and his administration’s view of “global affairs as a zero-sum competition.”
“Mr. Trump’s shameful defense of the white nationalists and neo-Nazis who unleashed hatred and violence in Charlottesville, Va., further abnegated America’s moral leadership,” Biden wrote.
“Not since the Jim Crow era has an American president so misunderstood and misrepresented our values,” he argued.
He stressed, “You cannot define Americans by what they look like, where they come from, whom they love or how they worship. Only our democratic values define us,” the former vice president wrote. And if we lose sight of this in our conduct at home or abroad, we jeopardise the respect that has made the United States the greatest nation on earth.”
Biden also criticised Trump for locking hands with world leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin and called on the United States to reclaim its moral standing in the world.
He added, “Reclaiming our values starts with standing up for them at home — inclusivity, tolerance, diversity, respect for the rule of law, freedom of speech, freedom of the press. If these are the democratic principles we wish to see around the world, America must be the first to model them.”
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