Biden, Who Was VP in 2016, Says Russian Interference Wouldn't Have Happened on His Watch & Barack's
Former vice president and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden suggested in an interview this week that Russian election meddling would not have happened under his or former President Barack Obama’s watch.
There’s just one problem with that ridiculous assertion, of course, which is that Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election occurred during the Obama administration.
“Look at what’s happening with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin,” Biden told CNN’s Chris Cuomo in an interview that aired Friday. “While Putin is trying to undo our elections, he is undoing elections in Europe. Look what’s happened in Hungary. Look what’s happened in Poland. Look what’s happened in Moldova.”
“You think that would happen on my watch or Barack’s watch? You can’t answer that, but I promise you it wouldn’t have, and it didn’t.”
And you’ll be shocked, absolutely shocked, to learn that Cuomo didn’t challenge Biden on that ridiculous claim, instead launching into another question about North Korea.
Watch below:
So what exactly was wrong with what Biden said?
Here’s the thing: At this point, no one denies that Russia did interfere in the 2016 presidential election, even though there’s no evidence then-candidate Donald Trump was involved, as special counsel Robert Mueller’s report showed.
But Russia did interfere.
And guess who was president at the time?
Why, Barack Obama, of course.
And guess who was vice president?
Well, that would be Joe Biden.
Point is, Russian interference did happen on Obama and Biden’s watch. And that means they bear at least some of the responsibility for allowing it to happen.
Trump even noted as much himself in a May tweet.
“Why didn’t President Obama do something about Russia in September (before November Election) when told by the FBI?” the president wrote at the time. “He did NOTHING, and had no intention of doing anything!”
Why didn’t President Obama do something about Russia in September (before November Election) when told by the FBI? He did NOTHING, and had no intention of doing anything!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 1, 2019
Biden, for his part, has previously acknowledged that the intelligence community didn’t really do enough to stop Russia from interfering in the lead-up to Election Day 2016.
“The president and I would sit there, literally, after the [president’s daily intelligence briefing] … and say: ‘What the hell are we going to do?’” Biden said in January 2018, according to NBC News. “There was this constant tightrope that was being walked here as to what would we do.”
“The bottom line was it was tricky as hell,” Biden said. “It’s easy now to say, well, maybe we should have said more.”
Well, the Obama administration should have done more. But it didn’t.
And trying to deny that Russian election meddling happened under the Obama administration watch is nothing short of absurd.
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