Former Vice President Joe Biden admitted that President Donald Trump’s contentious and oftentimes baffling treatment of American allies makes him feel “guilty” that he doesn’t want to run for President in 2020, according to a Tuesday Washington Post report.
“It makes me feel guilty about not wanting to [run for President],” he told the Post. “But it doesn’t make me want to. I’m not looking to live in the White House, I’ve seen it up close.”
He then walked back his comments. “But all kidding aside, I don’t know what I’m going to do,” he added.
Despite his reluctance to reenter the political fray, Biden has serious concerns about Trump’s treatments of our European allies.
“The things that are the most debilitating from the perspective of most of the Europeans is the way he conducts himself when he is with allies,” Biden said. “Several of them have said to me the degree of disrespect shown is debilitating.”
“Several of them have spoken to me about what was referred to as his gratuitous criticism of Merkel, who is in a tough spot already,” he continued. “They’ve never seen anything like that before.”
Biden refers to incidents like the infamous episode at the G-7 Summit when Trump smacked down Starbursts on the table in front of Merkel, snarking “here, Angela. Don’t say I never gave you anything.”
Biden added that the increased isolation from America’s European allies is having detrimental effects back home.
“It lends itself to charlatans who take two isms — nationalism and populism — and use them to open up space to be able to abuse power,” Biden said. “I think that’s what’s going on right now in America.”
