Joe Biden attacked President Donald Trump on
Saturday over a report that he said, if true, contains a “truly shocking
revelation” about the commander in chief and his failure to protect U.S. troops
in Afghanistan and stand up to Russia.
The New York Times reported Friday that
American intelligence officials concluded months ago that a Russian military
intelligence unit secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for
killing U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The report said the Russians offered rewards
for successful attacks last year, at a time when the U.S. and Taliban were
holding talks to end the long-running war.
“The truly shocking revelation that if the
Times report is true, and I emphasize that again, is that President Trump, the
commander in chief of American troops serving in a dangerous theater of war,
has known about this for months, according to the Times, and done worse than
nothing,” Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, said during a virtual town
hall.
The White House said neither Trump nor Vice
President Mike Pence was briefed on such intelligence. “This does not speak to
the merit of the alleged intelligence but to the inaccuracy of the New York
Times story erroneously suggesting that President Trump was briefed on this
matter,” press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement.
Russia called the report “nonsense."
"This unsophisticated plant clearly
illustrates the low intellectual abilities of the propagandists of American
intelligence, who instead of inventing something more plausible have to make up
this nonsense,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
The Times quoted a Taliban spokesman denying
that its militants have such a deal with the Russian intelligence agency.
The newspaper, citing unnamed officials
familiar with the intelligence, said the findings were presented to Trump and
discussed by his National Security Council in late March. Officials developed
potential responses, starting with a diplomatic complaint to Russia, but the
White House has yet to authorize any step, the report said.
Biden slammed Trump over his reported failure
to act.
“Not only has he failed to sanction and
impose any kind of consequences on Russia for this egregious violation of
international law, Donald Trump has continued his embarrassing campaign of
deference and debasing himself before Vladimir Putin,” the former vice
president said.
Biden called it a “betrayal of the most
sacred duty we bear as a nation — to protect and equip our troops when we send
them into harm’s way.”
He said Americans who serve in the military
put their life on the line. “But they should never, never, never ever face a
threat like this with their commander in chief turning a blind eye to a foreign
power putting a bounty on their heads,” he said.
“I’m quite frankly outraged by the report,”
Biden said. He promised that if he is elected, “Putin will be confronted and
we’ll impose serious costs on Russia.”
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