2020 Democratic front-runner Joe Biden claimed that he has spent “thousands of hours” in the White House Situation Room while blasting President Trump over foreign policy.
Biden was vice president for 2,920 days, so to have spent “thousands” — more than 2,000 — hours in the Situation Room would mean he was there for an average of nearly 52 minutes each day.
He was present in the famous Situation Room photograph taken on May 1, 2011 during the Navy SEAL operation that ended in Osama bin Laden being killed. Biden initially said he opposed the operation and told President Barack Obama not to do it. But he later changed his account to say he hedged in front of other officials but privately told Obama to go ahead. Obama, his secretary of state Hillary Clinton, his CIA director Leon Panetta, and his Pentagon chief Bob Gates all said that Biden was opposed.
While fielding questions about Trump’s recent decision to withdraw U.S. troops from northern Syria during the Ohio debate, the former vice president slammed the president’s move.
“I would not have withdrawn the troops and would not have withdrawn the additional thousand troops in Iraq, which are in retreat being fired on by Assad’s people, and the president of the United States saying, ‘If those ISIS folks escape from the prisons they’re in, they’ll only go to Europe and won’t affect us.’ It has been the most shameful thing any president has done in modern history — excuse me, in terms of foreign policy,” he began.
Biden then called Trump’s Syria withdrawal the “most shameful” foreign policy move by a modern American president, driving home his point by touting his experience in the Obama administration and claiming he has spent “thousands of hours” by the former president’s side making crucial foreign policy decisions.
He said, “The fact of the matter is, I’ve never seen a time — and I’ve spent thousands of hours in the Situation Room, I’ve spent many hours on the ground in those very places in Syria, in Iraq, and guess what? Our commanders across the board, former and present, are ashamed of what’s happening here.”
Biden continued, “What I would do is, I would be making it real clear to Assad that, in fact, where he’s going to have a problem because Turkey is the real problem here. And I would be having a real lockdown conversation with Erdoğan and letting him know that he’s going to pay a heavy price for what he has done.”
The Trump administration announced the withdrawal of troops from northern Syria last week, opening the door for Turkey to invade the country and attack the U.S.-allied Kurds, which it considers terrorists, in the area. The move has been widely slammed by members of both parties, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is even working with Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham on legislation to “overturn” the decision.
