总统候选人、前副总统乔·拜登周四发表了一篇广泛的外交政策演讲，针对唐纳德·特朗普总统与独裁者和威权领导人发展友好关系的做法。
拜登将特朗普的反应比作2017年8月在弗吉尼亚州夏洛茨维尔举行的白人至上主义者联合右翼集会——之后，总统辩称反种族主义抗议者也应对发生的暴力事件负责——他对俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京的态度显然是恭敬的。
拜登在演讲中说:“当我看到唐纳德·特朗普对夏洛茨维尔事件做出回应时，我知道在宣扬仇恨和反对仇恨的人之间分配了一个道德对等点，对民主的威胁不同于任何时候，至少在我有生之年。”。拜登继续说道:“不到一年后，特朗普再次站在媒体面前，这次是在赫尔辛基的外国土地上，在美国利益、美国情报机构以及我认为是美国人民的利益问题上，他一再屈从于弗拉基米尔·普京。”。
拜登接着辩称，特朗普贬低了民主价值观，对政治强人表现得像个马屁精。
“当他拒绝谴责沙特阿拉伯对一名记者的可怕谋杀，当他爱上朝鲜一名凶残的独裁者时。我知道这不是字面上的意思，但想想它向全世界传达了什么信息，”拜登补充道，分别关注特朗普与沙特王储穆罕默德·本·萨尔曼和朝鲜领导人金正恩的关系。
民主党总统候选人、前副总统乔·拜登出席2019年6月28日在伊利诺伊州芝加哥举行的彩虹推动联盟年度国际大会。斯科特·奥尔森/盖蒂图片社
“他破坏我们的民主联盟，同时拥抱迎合他虚荣心的独裁者。毫无疑问，世界认为特朗普不真诚、消息不灵通、冲动，有时腐败、无能到危险的地步，在我看来，他在国内没有能力领导世界，”拜登补充道。
拜登指出:“作为美国总统，我要提醒世界，我们是美利坚合众国，我们不会溺爱独裁者。”。"美利坚合众国没有给仇恨一个安全的港湾."
拜登还提出，外交政策和国内政策密不可分，保护美国就业将包括逆转特朗普的贸易政策。
在任期的前半段，特朗普总统着手撤销巴拉克·奥巴马政府的主要外交政策成就，拜登曾为奥巴马政府担任过两届副总统。特朗普执政的头两年，退出了巴黎气候协议和伊朗核协议，导致紧张局势加剧，并威胁可能与伊斯兰共和国发生武装冲突。
拜登周四还承诺，如果特朗普入主白宫，他将逆转其外交政策遗产，包括逆转特朗普上任后几乎立即实施的备受争议的穆斯林旅行禁令。拜登还承诺召开一次“全球民主峰会”，以修复与美国传统盟友(如英国和德国)的关系，这些国家在特朗普治下关系紧张。
尽管如此，目前还不清楚拜登是否会成为民主党总统候选人。政治分析人士指出，拜登在最近的初选辩论中表现不如他的对手，特别是参议员卡马拉·哈里斯，他在参议院期间公开挑战这位职业政治家反对联邦政府支持某些学校融合项目的立法行动。
YouGov民意测验周三发布这表明，尽管拜登仍然在20多名民主党候选人的广阔领域领先，但他仅领先参议员伊丽莎白·沃伦5个百分点，领先哈里斯8个百分点。沃伦和哈里斯都超越了参议员伯尼·桑德斯，后者轻松地排在拜登之后，位居第二。
'WE DO NOT CODDLE DICTATORS:' JOE BIDEN TURNS FOCUS BACK TO TRUMP AFTER POOR DEBATE PERFORMANCE
residential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden delivered a broad foreign policy speech Thursday, taking aim at President Donald Trump's practice of developing friendly relationships with dictators and authoritarian leaders.
Biden likened Trump's reaction to the August 2017 white-supremacist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia — after which the president argued that anti-racist protestors were also to blame for the violence that occurred — to his apparently deferential approach to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"I knew when I saw Donald Trump respond to events in Charlottesville, assigning a moral equivalence between those who promoted hate and those who opposed it, that the threat to democracy was unlike any time, at least in my lifetime," Biden said during the speech. "Less than a year later, Trump again stood before the press, this time on foreign soil in Helsinki, and repeatedly deferred to Vladimir Putin over U.S. interests, the American intelligence community, and, I would argue, over the American people's interest," Biden continued.
Biden then went on to argue that Trump has debased democratic values and acted like a sycophant toward political strongmen.
"When he refuses to condemn Saudi Arabia for the gruesome murder of a journalist, and when he falls in love with a murderous dictator in North Korea. I know it's not literal, but think what message it sends around the world," Biden added, focusing on Trump's relationships with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman and North Korea leader Kim Jong Un, respectively.
Democratic presidential candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden attends the Rainbow PUSH Coalition Annual International Convention on June 28, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois.SCOTT OLSON/GETTY IMAGES
"He undermines our democratic alliances while embracing dictators who appeal to his vanity. And make no mistake, the world sees Trump for what he is, insincere, ill-informed, and impulsive, and sometimes corrupt, dangerously incompetent, and, in my view, incapable of world leadership and leadership at home," Biden added.
"As President of the United States, I would remind the world that we are the United States of America and we do not coddle dictators," Biden noted. "The United States of America gives hate no safe harbor."
Biden also made the argument that foreign policy and domestic policy are inextricably linked, and that protecting U.S. jobs would include reversing Trump's trade policies.
During the first half of his term, President Trump went about undoing the major foreign policy achievements of the administration of President Barack Obama, for whom Biden served two terms as vice president. Within the first two years of his time in office, Trump pulled out of the Paris Climate Accords and the Iran nuclear deal, resulting in increased tension and threats of possible armed conflict with the Islamic republic.
Biden also pledged Thursday to reverse Trump's foreign policy legacy if he makes it to the White House, including a reversal the controversial Muslim travel ban that Trump implemented almost immediately after taking office. Biden also pledged to convene a "global summit for democracies" to repair the relationships with traditional U.S. allies, countries like the United Kingdom and Germany, that have been strained under Trump.
Still, it is unclear if Biden will be the Democratic nominee for President. Political analysts noted that Biden underperformed during recent primary debates compared to his opponents, in particular Senator Kamala Harris, who publicly challenged the career politician for legislative actions during his time in the Senate that opposed federal support of certain school integration programs.
A YouGov poll released Wednesday showed that while Biden still led the vast field of more than two-dozen Democratic candidates, he only enjoyed a 5 percentage point lead over Senator Elizabeth Warren and an 8-point lead over Harris. Both Warren and Harris leap-frogged over Senator Bernie Sanders, who had been comfortably running in second behind Biden.
