Trump Slams Joe Biden as 'Reclamation Project' Who 'Won't Win' 2020 Election
President Donald Trump attacked leading Democratic candidate Joe Biden on Saturday morning, claiming the former vice president can not win the 2020 general election, but that countries who do not have America's best interests in mind were "begging" for a Biden victory.
"Joe Biden is a reclamation project," wrote Trump on Twitter early Saturday morning. "Some things are just not salvageable. China and other countries that ripped us off for years are begging for him. He deserted our military, our law enforcement and our healthcare. Added more debt than all other Presidents combined. Won't win!"
This was the second time in two days that the president had come out publicly against Biden, who continues to lead the large field of 2020 Democratic hopefuls but has seen his frontrunner status shrink as Senators Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren have gained traction.
Speaking to reporters Friday before leaving for a weekend at his golf resort in New Jersey, Trump took some shots at Biden and the administration of former President Barack Obama.
"You look at what Joe Biden has done with China. We've lost our shirts with China, and now China's dying to make a deal. And we're taking, by the way, billions and billions of dollars in tariffs are coming in, and China is paying for it, not our people," Trump said, repeating his inaccurate claim about who is shouldering the cost of tariffs on imports from China. "If you look at what we've done and if you look at what we've straightened out — I call it the Obama-Biden mess. We're straightening it out."
What exactly brought on the anti-Biden tirades from Trump was not immediately clear. The former vice president did, however, liken the commander-in-chief to a schoolyard "bully" during a recent wide-ranging interview with CNN.
Speaking to CNN's Chris Cuomo, Biden laughed off the "idea that I'd be intimidated by Donald Trump," saying the president was "the bully that I knew my whole life. He's the bully that I've always stood up to. He's the bully that used to make fun when I was a kid that I stutter, and I'd smack him in the mouth."
Biden did also criticize Trump for what he viewed as a too-friendly approach to negotiating with North Korea. The president made history last weekend by becoming the first sitting U.S. president to enter into the dictatorship, when he briefly met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un. Trump has been accused by Biden and others of being too eager to legitimize Kim's government without yet having received any guarantees it will curb its nuclear program.
"Look, you want to talk, you want to deal with us, you want sanctions lifted. Show me something ahead of time," Biden told CNN about how he would deal with North Korea.
Biden has been receiving flak from both Republicans — who have viewed his name recognition and centrist stances as a potential threat in the election — and his fellow Democrats, some of whom have attempted to call out the career politician for his past controversial statements and actions, particularly during his early years in the Senate.
As a young senator from Delaware, Biden actively supported legislation to end federal support of busing — the policy of attempting to racially integrate public schools by taking minority students and placing them into predominantly white schools.
Biden has repeatedly claimed that, despite his legislative record, he was not against busing.
"I did not oppose busing in America," the former vice president said recently. "What I opposed is busing ordered by the Department of Education."
