President Joe Biden stood frozen on stage Friday as he tried to think of a way to insult former President Donald Trump for inviting Russia to invade NATO allies.
Biden was in the Roosevelt Room talking to reporters about the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, 47, who was imprisoned in a penal colony in Siberia.
After blaming Russian President Vladimir Putin for Navalny’s death, he turned his attention to Trump, the likely 2024 Republican nominee.
“We must all reject the dangerous statements of the previous president, who invited Russia to invade our NATO allies if they did not pay up. He said if an ally didn’t pay its dues, he would encourage Russia “to do whatever they want,” Biden said.
Then he stopped talking for a moment as he calmed his thoughts.
“I think I need to clear my head here and not say what I really think,” he continued after the break. ‘But let me be clear. This is an outrageous thing for a president to say.”
“I can’t fathom it, can’t fathom it – from Truman on down, they’re turning in their graves when they hear this,” Biden added.
President Joe Biden took a long pause to collect his thoughts before insulting former President Donald Trump from the Roosevelt Room on Friday. Trump said he told a NATO ally to pay up because he wanted to ‘encourage Russia to do whatever they want’
The ex-president’s controversial comments were made at a rally in South Carolina on Saturday.
Trump said that during his term as president he told a NATO leader to pay up or he would “encourage” Russia to “do whatever they want.”
“As long as I am president, America will stand by our sacred promise to our NATO allies — as they have repeatedly held by theirs to us,” Biden said Friday. “Putin and the whole world must know that if an adversary were to attack us, our NATO allies would support us.”
“And if Putin should attack a NATO ally, the United States will defend every inch of NATO territory,” the president continued. “Now is the time for even greater unity among our NATO allies.”
At the top of Biden’s remarks, the president spoke of Navalny’s courage in standing up to “corruption” and “violence” from Putin’s government.
“In response, Putin had him poisoned, he had him arrested, he had him prosecuted for trumped-up crimes, he sent him to prison, he was kept isolated, even none of that stopped him from spouting Putin’s lies,” Biden said . . “Even in prison he was a powerful voice for the truth, which is pretty amazing when you think about it.”
Biden pointed out that Navalny could have lived his life safely in exile after the 2020 assassination attempt, but decided to go home to Russia “knowing that he would likely be jailed or even killed.”
A photo taken Thursday of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Russian media reported on Friday that Navalny was dead at the age of 47. He was imprisoned in a penal colony in Siberia
Russian President Vladimir Putin is photographed in Chelyabinsk, Russia on Friday. Biden said during his speech in the Roosevelt Room on Friday that “Putin is responsible” for Navalny’s death
“If reports of his death are true, and I have no reason to believe they are not, Russian authorities are going to tell their own story,” Biden said. “Make no mistake, make no mistake: Putin is responsible for Navalny’s death. Putin is responsible.”
“What happened to Navalny is yet another proof of Putin’s brutality,” the president added.
Biden said Navalny was “so many things that Putin was not.”
“He was courageous, he was principled, he was committed to building a Russia where the rule of law existed and where it applied to all,” Biden said. “Navalny believed in that Russia, that Russia, he knew it was a cause worth fighting for, and of course even dying for.”
In June 2021, Biden promised that there would be consequences if Navalny died in prison.
“I made it clear to him that I believe the consequences would be devastating for Russia,” the president said at the time, immediately after a meeting with Putin in Geneva.
When Biden was asked about that threat on Friday, he said Russia is already suffering that fate.
“That was three years ago,” he said. ‘In the meantime, they had to deal with a lot of consequences.’
Biden pointed to the 350,000 dead or injured Russian soldiers as a result of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and the tough sanctions on Russia imposed by the US.
“And we’re considering what more can be done,” Biden said. “But what we talked about at the time, no actions were taken against Russia. And look what’s happened since then.’
“We’re looking at a whole range of options, that’s all I can say right now,” Biden added.
The president also stated that there was no way the US could provide additional ammunition to the Ukrainians without Congress passing the supplemental funding bill.
‘It’s time for them to take action, don’t you think? Instead of going on vacation for two weeks,” Biden said in a whisper before raising his voice. ‘Two weeks. They walk away. Two weeks! What are they thinking? My God.’
‘This is bizarre. And it just reinforces all the concerns and almost, I won’t say panic, but real concerns about the United States being a reliable ally,” Biden continued. ‘This is outrageous.’
He told reporters: “I hope so,” Navalny’s death leads to action on Capitol Hill to push the funding bill through the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
‘Come on. What are these guys doing? What are they doing?’ Biden urged.