One of several gems: ‘The reason I cleared the intelligence [was] so we can release the information we knew that [Putin] was going to attack, was to let the world know we were still in charge.’ – Leader of the Free World.

By Jack Montgomery | The National Pulse

TIME magazine has published a transcript of a lengthy foreign policy interview with Joe Biden. In it, the 81-year-old Democrat repeatedly lies, gets basic facts wrong, and often becomes confused and devolves into incomprehensible gibberish.

From the very beginning of the interview, Biden claims his botched and humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan “was not a loss” before lying about Donald Trump’s record of achievement regarding the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

NATO. 

“I really believe that we have a values-based as well as practical-based alliances around the world. And he, Trump, wanted to just abandon them. He says he’s practical, one-on-one things he’s doing [sic],” Biden says of NATO, despite the alliance including members with sharply different values than America, such as Turkey.

“Well, [Trump] didn’t get much done,” Biden adds. In fact, Trump’s no-nonsense approach to European NATO members saw them agree to historic increases in defense spending.

UKRAINE. 

Russia annexed part of Ukraine in 2014, when Biden was Vice President, and launched a full-scale invasion of the country in 2022 after he became President. Nevertheless, the Democrat claims Russia ignoring his warnings against invading somehow proves America is “still in charge.”

“[T]he idea that if when Putin decided to go into Russia—I mean, he’s gonna go from Russia into Ukraine—the reason why I cleared the intelligence so we can release the information we knew that he was going to attack, was to let the world know we were still in charge,” he said.

AID.

Donald Trump has frequently complained that European NATO members are not contributing enough to Ukraine. Biden tells TIME that America has “spent a lot of money in Ukraine, but Europe has spent more money than the United States has, collectively.”

This is untrue, with TIME itself noting the European Union (EU) has provided around $107 billion in “financial, military, humanitarian, and refugee assistance,” while U.S. taxpayers have forked over $175 billion.

THE USSR.

“[Putin] says this is part of reestablishing the Soviet Union. That’s what this is all about. It wasn’t just about taking part of—He wanted, he wanted to go back to the, to the days when there was NATO and there was that other outfit that Poland, everybody belonged to,” Biden says at one point, failing to remember the name of the Cold War-era Warsaw Pact.

Reestablishing the Soviet Union would involve Russian annexations of not only Ukraine but also Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Reestablishing the Warsaw Pact would entail installing puppet governments in Albania, Bulgaria, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and even (East) Germany.

There is no evidence Putin, 71, has any intention of embarking on a war of conquest on this scale, which would necessitate direct conflict with multiple NATO members, most of which have no significant Russian minority population.

ENDGAME. 

Asked what the desired endgame in Ukraine looks like, Biden claims, “Peace looks like making sure Russia never, never, never, never occupies Ukraine.” Irrelevantly, he then admits he saw “significant corruption” in Ukraine as a Senator and as Vice President before claiming “that if we ever let Ukraine go down, mark my words: you’ll see Poland go, and you’ll see all those nations along the actual border of Russia, from the Balkans and Belarus, all those, they’re going to make their own accommodations.”

The Balkans region does not border Russia, and Russia and Belarus have already formed a Union State.

HISTORY. 

When asked about his goals for a second term, Biden ominously reveals he spoke to Henry Kissinger ten days before he died at age 100, claiming the notorious war hawk told him that “not since Napoleon has Europe not looked over their shoulder at dread with what Europe—what Russia may do—until now.”

Whether Biden remembered the conversation correctly is unknown, but historically, Austria, Britain, Portugal, Prussia, Spain, Sweden, and others allied with Russia to defeat Napoleon, who was viewed as a far greater threat to Europe.

INDO-PACIFIC.  

Speaking on his Indo-Pacific strategy, Biden rambles semi-coherently, “Did you ever think if I told you that Japan would be devoting three percent of its GDP to defense and make a rapprochement at Camp David with South Korea as an overwhelming threat that exists to North Korea as well as to Europe?”

Japan has committed to increasing defense spending to two percent, not three percent.

Biden also claims he “put together a Quad that never existed before” in the form of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue between the U.S., Japan, Australia, and India.

The Quad was, in fact, formed in 2004. It became inactive for a time but was reformed in 2017.

AFRICA. 

Biden states, “There are going to be a billion people in Africa in the next several years,” and says America has “to be a catalyst for change for the benefit, for the, for the better, we have to help them build back better, we have to help them.”

Africa’s population is already around 1.4 billion.

ECONOMY. 

Pressed on the fact that “Cumulative inflation means that prices are up 18 percent, at least since you took office, and wage increases have not kept pace,” Biden becomes confused, saying, “Since who took office? Since I took office?”

After some help from the interviewer, he says, “Wage increases have exceeded what the cost of inflation, which you’re talking about as the prices that were pre-COVID prices.”

In a fact-check accompanying the interview, TIME admits this is misleading, and “cumulative inflation has outpaced wage growth for most of the Biden presidency.”

ISRAEL. 

Biden’s position on the war in Gaza is particularly incoherent, perhaps because many of his 2020 voters want him to take a more anti-Israel position. Asked if he believes “Netanyahu is prolonging the war for his own political self-preservation,” Biden first responds he is “not going to comment on that,” then immediately follows up by saying, “There is every reason for people to draw that conclusion.”

When asked about Trump’s comments on Netanyahu bearing some responsibility for the October 7 attack on Israel, however, Biden immediately switches to defending the Israeli leader, saying, ” I don’t know how any one person has that responsibility.”

TAIWAN.

Biden completely unravels when asked what a U.S. defense of Taiwan against Chinese invasion would look like. “It would depend on the circumstances.

“You know, by the way, I’ve made clear to Xi Jinping that we agree with—we signed on to previous presidents going way back—to the policy of, that, it is we are not seeking independence for Taiwan nor will we in fact, not defend Taiwan if they if, if China unilaterally tries to change the status,” he gibbers. ##