(Headline USA) A former Obama administration official argued this week that President Joe Biden and his frequent gaffes have diminished the U.S.’s international standing.
In an article for USA Today, former Director of Global Engagement for the Obama White House Brett Bruen argued Biden’s “reckless riffs” and foreign policy gaffes have “unnecessarily undermined our standing and irresponsibly handed propaganda points to our adversaries.”
“I used to cringe when Vice President Joe Biden took to the podium,” he wrote.
“Despite all the preparation that went into an event and his remarks, as a staffer on the National Security Council, you never quite knew what he might say.”
It usually didn’t end as planned, Bruen wrote.
“At times, his offhanded comments could spice up what otherwise would be a pretty boring policy address. Yet, there were other times, too many times, when it could veer into dangerous terrain.”
Biden should fire his entire national security team, Bruen added, saying “they are all too aware that he has this troublesome tendency to go off script” and should be better about preparing him for “obvious questions.”
Bruen cited several of Biden’s foreign policy gaffes, including when he said last summer that it was not inevitable that Kabul would “fall to the Taliban,” and earlier this year when he declared Russian President Vladimir Putin “should be removed from power.”
“How does such careless careening into crisis territory keep happening?” he asked. “Biden bears the lion share of blame for his ill-considered improvisation.”
“Sometimes, the president’s experience and overconfidence do not serve him well,” he said.
“Decades doing diplomacy have led to Biden developing pretty rigid perceptions and policy positions. He is often stuck in outdated notions of how the world works. We need more experienced leaders who can speak truth to power and implement our foreign policy without so many fumbles.”
