Biden Torches Trump on World Stage, Talks Trash About 2024: ‘I’d Be Very Fortunate’ If Trump Runs Again
President Joe Biden tore into former President Donald Trump on the world stage, and cracked wise about running against his predecessor again in 2024.
The president held a press conference at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium Thursday evening, the bulk of which was devoted to matters directly related to the brutal Russian war against Ukraine, and NATO’s role in the conflict.
But one reporter — Der Spiegel Brussels Bureau Chief Markus Becker — connected the state of the alliance with domestic politics, asking the president about the prospect of having his foreign policy achievements “undone” by someone like Trump… or Trump himself.
The president used the question as an opportunity to roast Trump, and to deliver a message that roughly decodes as “Come at me, bro!”:
MR. BECKER: Thanks, Mr. President. There’s a presidential election coming up in 2024. And as you know, there are wide- —
THE PRESIDENT: You’re kidding.
MR. BECKER: Yes. (Laughter.) It’s true. And there are widespread concerns in Europe that a figure like your predecessor, maybe even your predecessor himself, might get elected president again. So, are there any steps, anything you’re trying to do and NATO is trying to do here, these days, to prevent what you’re trying to do becoming undone two years from now? Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: No, I — that’s not how I think of this. I’ve been dealing with foreign policy for longer than anybody that’s involved in this process right now. I have no concerns about the impact —
I made a commitment when I ran this time. I wasn’t going to run again, and I mean that sincerely. I had no intention of running for President again and — until I saw those folks coming out of the fields in Virginia carrying torches and carrying Nazi banners and literally singing the same vile rhyme that they used in Germany in the early ‘20s — or ‘30s, I should say. And then, when the gentleman you mentioned was asked what he thought — and a young woman was killed, a protester — and he asked — was asked what he thought, he said, “There are very good people on both sides.” And that’s when I decided I wasn’t going to be quiet any longer.
And when I ran this time — and I think the American press, whether they look at me favorably or unfavorably, acknowledge this — I made a determination: Nothing is worth — no election is worth my not doing exactly what I think is the right thing. Not a joke. I’m too long in the tooth to fool with this any longer.
And so, we’re a long way off in elections — a long way off. My focus of any election is on making sure that we retain the House and the United States Senate so that I have the room to continue to do the things that I’ve been able to do in terms of grow the economy and deal in a rational way with American foreign policy and lead the world — lead the — be the leader of the free world.
So — but it’s not a — it’s not an illogical question for someone to ask. I say to people at home: Imagine if we sat and watched the doors of the Bundestag broken down and police officers killed and hundreds of people storming in, or imagine if we saw that happening in the British Parliament or whatever. How would we feel?
And one of the things that I take some solace from is: I don’t think you’ll find any European leader who thinks that I am not up to the job. And I mean that sincerely. It’s not like, “Whoa…” It’s that — that —
The point is that when — the first G7 meeting I attended, like the one I did today, was in Great Britain. And I sat down, and I said, “America is back.” And one of the — one of my counterparts, colleagues, a head of state, said, “For how long?” “For how long?”
And so, I don’t blame — I don’t — I don’t criticize anybody for asking that question. But the next election, I’d be very fortunate if I had that same man running against me.
Watch above via Fox News and AP video.
