Joe Biden in Council on Foreign Relations
On Foreign Policy:
Easier for Russia to deal with disunified West
Q: Is it accurate or useful to describe where we are with Russia as a second or new cold war?BIDEN: I think that'd be a little bit of an exaggeration. The Cold War was based on a conflict of two profoundly different ideological notions of how the
world should function. This is just basically about a kleptocracy protecting itself. That's a vast oversimplification. It's much easier if you're dealing with 28 different nations not in union with one another, not a Western economy that is coordinated.
Source: Council on Foreign Relations on 2020 candidates
Jan 23, 2018
On Government Reform:
Supports laws sanctioning Russia for election interference
Q: What about relations with Russia? BIDEN: We're talking about Russian interference in the United States, whether there was collusion between the Trump administration and Russia. That's obscured a much larger discussion that should be taking
place about whether or not what Russia is doing in the rest of the world right now and what Russia is doing in Europe right now.
Q: There is bipartisan legislation in the Senate that would put in place sanctions that would snap in place on
Russia if in the future any determination is made that foreign election interference has happened. Do you think this is an appropriate step?
BIDEN: I think it is an appropriate step. I'm sure there are consequences that could flow that are ones we did not anticipate, but were I in the Senate, I'd be supporting that legislation.
Source: Council on Foreign Relations on 2020 candidates
Jan 23, 2018
On Foreign Policy:
Intervention in Venezuela would turn S. America against US
If we decide that we are going to engage in covert action or overt military action, we would lose all of South America, increasing Maduro's hand and power, rather than diminishing it. We are working to make it clear that there is a serious price for
Venezuela to pay if they continue the oppression. We have made known directly to Maduro and his foreign ministry our overwhelming distaste for what he's doing and what we expect to happen.
Source: Council on Foreign Relations on 2020 candidates
Sep 21, 2016
On Free Trade:
US must take lead on free trade, but deal with uneven impact
Globalization, man, it's been wonderful. It's not been wonderful for an awful lot of people. It is applied very, very unevenly. We fail to recognize that there are genuine dislocations when we talk about TPP and trade. The truth of the matter is,
if we're not pushing on the establishment of an international order and fully engaged internationally, there is little likelihood that there will be 21st century rules of the road that can accommodate the change that's taking place.
Source: Council on Foreign Relations on 2020 candidates
Sep 21, 2016
On Health Care:
2016: "I played a small part" in work on ObamaCare
The president deserves the credit. I mean, I played a small part. What drove the president's desire to change the health care landscape was not just changing the notion from a privilege to right but dealing with the federal deficit. We knew when we
passed the ACA that it would need modification. But we make no apologies for the fact that the smallest percentage of Americans in history are not covered now. If we did nothing else, we brought peace of mind to millions and millions of people.
Source: Council on Foreign Relations on 2020 candidates
Sep 21, 2016
On Jobs:
Prepare workers for new jobs and they'll support free trade
What we can do to make up for those losses that occur as a consequence of trade deals is better prepare them for those jobs in the 21st century. What do you guys say to us all the time? I need a better-educated workforce. This is not a hard thing to do.
We have to let people know there is something else out there for them. Then you'll get support for the international role that America should play, and trade becomes a different thing.
Source: Council on Foreign Relations on 2020 candidates
Sep 21, 2016
On Principles & Values:
Never, never bet against the American people
I remember debating someone in the late '80s about how Japan was going to eat our lunch. How the EU, we could not compete with 384 million people. Come on, man! We used to believe we could do anything. What the hell's happened? Give me empirical
evidence that we're not better-positioned than any nation in the world. What I tell every world leader, it's never, never, never, never, never been a good bet to bet against the American people, ordinary people who can do extraordinary things.
Source: Council on Foreign Relations on 2020 candidates
Sep 21, 2016
On War & Peace:
Don't trust Iran but they met initial conditions of deal
I think the deal is attractive as it is. We don't trust Iran at all. But Iran has met the front-end portion of the deal. Could there be a better deal? Yeah. I mean, the better deal was we could have them foreswear there's no circumstance in which
they could ever have peaceful nuclear power, et cetera. But to get from here to there is a difficult choice. I think the president did a hell of a job bringing together a coalition to get this done.
Source: Council on Foreign Relations on 2020 candidates
Sep 21, 2016
On Drugs:
US should focus on disrupting Afghanistan drug trade
Afghanistan produces 93% of the world's poppy. I believe we should focus on arresting drug kingpins, disrupting supply routes and destroying the labs that convert poppy into heroin. When the administration testified before our committee, I asked:
Has one drug kingpin arrested? And the answer was, no. I have a great deal of experience in this, unfortunately, over the last 30 years and it is absolutely outrageous that not even one single one has been arrested.
Source: Council on Foreign Relations on 2020 candidates
Feb 25, 2008
On Foreign Policy:
Nation-building is key to winning over rural Afghanis
Roads bind people together. They allow farmers to get production to the market. They bring prices down and access to goods and service is up, and they connect people to their government, which is something we heard everywhere we went in rural
Afghanistan -- the need to give some reason as to why it would be beneficial to "connect," quote, to their government. How do you spell "hope" in Dhari or in Pashtu? A-s-p-h-a-l-t. Asphalt. That's how you spell hope, in my humble opinion.
Source: Council on Foreign Relations on 2020 candidates
Feb 25, 2008
On Foreign Policy:
Foreign policy needs informed consent of American people
My colleagues kid me. From the beginning of the effort on Iraq I would say -- and there's not a single one of my colleagues that don't occasionally remind me of this, I would say that one of the things
I think our generation learned is no matter how well informed, or brilliant a foreign policy is, it cannot be sustained without the informed -- say it again, "informed," informed consent of the American people. The informed consent.
Source: Council on Foreign Relations on 2020 candidates
Feb 25, 2008
On War & Peace:
Afghanistan must never again be haven for al Qaeda
We don't have to imagine what a failed state in Afghanistan could mean for America's security; we already know. Afghanistan must never again become a safe haven for al Qaeda. But just as important, if Afghanistan fails, Pakistan could follow, because
extremists will set their sights on a bigger prize to the east, not the west. While we win every single battle, we're not winning that war. I believe we're not winning the war because we have not made Afghanistan the priority it should have been.
Helping Afghanistan become self-sustaining is going to be a monumental task. It's going to take up to a decade, and more blood will be spilled and more treasure will be spent. But I think it's important to put this in perspective.
It's nothing, nothing, nothing compared to the blood and treasure we've already devoted to Iraq. And, notwithstanding that, it is much more doable than, I think, what we have done thus far in Iraq.
Source: Council on Foreign Relations on 2020 candidates
Feb 25, 2008
Page last updated: Mar 16, 2022