Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed U.S. allies are not too troubled by President Joe Biden’s performance in his debate with former President Donald Trump.
“Well, I think what the world knows, the world has experienced over 3 1/2 years, not one night, is exactly the kind of leadership that he’s brought to bear on problems that are common for so many countries, particularly so many of the democracies around the world,” Blinken said Monday at the Brookings Institution.
Blinken and his hosts strove to present an image of normalcy: the secretary of state, sitting for a moderated Q-and-A session before an audience of diplomats and foreign policy experts — just another Monday morning in Washington, D.C. And yet, the event was haunted by the uncomfortable questions raised Thursday night, a debate performance that sparked a crisis inside the Democratic Party.
“There’s a desire, there’s a thirst for American engagement, for American leadership — even when we have disagreements with countries, they still want us in this and even leading to try to get to a better place,” Blinken said. “And they’ve seen a president who’s reinvested America, reinvested America in the world, reinvested in these alliances, in these partnerships, in ways that they seek and want.”
The discomfort with Biden’s age and readiness was implicit in the roundabout question that prompted Blinken to offer his defense.
“I did want to ask you about an issue that is much in the news these days, especially over the course of the past couple of days. Since the debate between President Biden and former President Trump, there has been a sense of strong discussion and lots of views being elicited,” Brookings Institution Vice President Suzanne Maloney said, without ever explicitly naming the subject of the discussion. “You have worked with President Joe Biden for decades. Can you tell us what you think friends and foes around the world should know about American leadership today under President Biden?”
Blinken insisted the administration has a strong reputation, for which credit ought to go to Biden.
“If you look at surveys around the world, for what they’re worth, you see, again and again and again, that confidence in American leadership has gone up dramatically over the last 3 1/2 years,” he said. “That doesn’t just happen. It’s the product of choices. It’s the product of policies that we pursue. It’s the product of our engagement.”
A senior European diplomat, with the advantage of a few days to recover from the initial shock of the debate, could not express that confidence.
“It was a shit show, to be honest,” the official, who represents a NATO-allied country, told the Washington Examiner. “And I share everybody else’s opinion [regarding] Biden’s performance. No matter how much they were able to pump him up the next day in Raleigh, I don’t think he is up to the task anymore.”
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The task of campaigning or doing the work of the presidency? “Both.”
Blinken, for his part, maintained he’s still getting good feedback. “So what I’m seeing, what I’m hearing is, again, people are looking at the last 3 1/2 years,” he said. “They’re looking at policies. They’re looking at policy choices, and for the most part, they like the choices and the policies that this president is pursuing.”