President Joe Biden on Tuesday attacked Donald Trump as having ‘no basis of understanding’ of foreign policy but also mixed up Norway and Finland when he was speaking about the NATO alliance.
‘This guy – he has no basis of understanding what American foreign policy is about,’ Biden told a group of about 50 supporters at a campaign stop in Reno, Nevada.
He also accused Trump of speaking like he lost he ‘lost a buddy’ when talking about Russian President Vladimir Putin.
‘This guy’s talking about like he has lost almost a buddy,’ Biden said.
But the president also made his own foreign policy flub, part of a series of errors where he has mixed up world leaders and countries.
President Joe Biden talks to a little supporter at his campaign event in Reno, Nev.
When talking about a conversation he had with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger shortly before the diplomat died, Biden said Kissinger spoke to him about Sweden and Norway joining NATO.
The incumbent president said Kissinger’s advice to strengthen the alliance was to ‘increase the NATO border through Sweden and Norway.’
Norway was a founding member of the alliance. Sweden and Finland joined NATO in the past year during Biden’s tenure in the White House.
Biden was in Reno to open a new campaign office that will work with the local Democratic Party to woo Latino and union voters. The president needs both group if he’s going to win Nevada in November.
He spent much of his remarks attacking Trump. Although he didn’t mention his Republican rival directly by name, it was clear who he was talking about.
Biden relayed a quote that Trump told supporters at Mar-a-Lago, even checking his ever-present note card to make sure he got the quote right: ‘He was in Mar Lago and he told a crowd of people – I want to look down so I get it exactly right – he said he described the crowd as I know you’re rich as hell. But I’m gonna give you those big tax cuts.’
He also complained that the press ‘report a lot of polls.’
He went on to say: ‘The last four polls had me up’ but didn’t say which polls.
However, he then added: ‘None of the polls mean a damn thing this early on.’
President Joe Biden on Tuesday attacked Donald Trump as having ‘no basis of understanding’ of foreign policy
A young girl covers her ears as Biden gives remarks to campaign supporters
In his remarks, President Joe Biden confused Norway and Finland when talking about NATO
Biden expressed confidence he could win a second term.
He told the cheering crowd of supporters: ‘I’m confident if we get our message out to the American people we’re going to win again.’
He compared his campaign strategy to a football game, saying it was all about blocking and defense, as he urged the supporters to go out ‘knocking on doors’ to go and make the case to the American people.
‘I feel really good as I go around the country. Not a joke.’
Biden won Nevada in 2020 by 2 percent over Trump.
It’s one of the two states he’s traveling to on Tuesday as he looks to shore up the southwest against his Republican rival.
His second stop of the day is in Las Vegas before he heads to Phoenix, Arizona.
Biden left the White House on Tuesday morning wearing a pair of smart shoes with an extra large gripped sole, appearing to have at least temporarily ditched the ‘lifestyle sneakers’ he has sported recently.
The president’s footwear has become a focus amid reports aides are seeking to give him more stability heading into the election campaign following a series of trips and stumbles.
Nevada and Arizona make up two of the seven battleground states the Biden campaign sees as necessary to a victory in November. The other five are Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia, and North Carolina.
On his trip he’s courting union voters and voters of color.
President Joe Biden will visit the key battleground states of Nevada and Arizona on Tuesday in a western campaign swing designed to shore up his support there against Donald Trump
Biden stepped out in dress shoes with flex grooves in the sole as he made his way to Marine One
‘As we enter the general election, we have multiple clear paths to victory through a number of critical swing states,’ Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a memo released Monday.
His three-day trip will be a combination of campaign and official events with a round of fundraising to top it off.
On his trip he’ll launched Latinos con Biden-Harris (Spanish for Latinos with Biden-Harris), which is part of the campaign’s effort to woo the voting blocs crucial to giving Biden a second term.
The incumbent president will specifically focus on black and Latino voters. Polls show those groups – along with younger voters – are slowly drawing away from Biden due to their frustration with the economy and the higher cost of living.
In Phoenix on Tuesday, the president will deliver remarks at a local Mexican restaurant in the southern part of the city, which is a predominantly Latino area.
On Wednesday he’ll talk about his Investing in America agenda in Phoenix before hitting two fundraisers in Dallas. And on Thursday he’ll have one more fundraiser in Houston before returning to the White House.
Biden is set to visit Washoe, Nev., and Maricopa, Ariz., two crucial, swing counties in those states, where he will court voters of color and union workers
The president heads up the small stairs of Air Force One before his flight west to campaign
On his trip he’ll also launch Latinos con Biden-Harris (Spanish for Latinos with Biden-Harris), which is part of the campaign’s effort to woo the voting blocs crucial to giving Biden a second term
The trip is part of his post-State of the Union blitz where he’ll argue his agenda has helped boost the economy as he seeks to boost his poll numbers against Trump.
In Arizona, Trump leads Biden by five points in the RealClearPolitics polling average. In Nevada, Trump is up by six points in the polling average.
In their 2020 contest, Biden won both states by close margins. He carried Nevada by 2 percent and won Arizona by just 10,000 votes out of more than 3 million cast. It was the first time Arizona voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1996.
Latino voters in particular have been gravitating toward Trump. The campaign is opening up bilingual offices in each state.
Latinos make up roughly one in four eligible voters in Arizona and Nevada.
Arizona, particularly Maricopa county, the home of Phoenix, was the epicenter of the post-2020 election battle after Trump falsely claimed he won the state and his supporters conducted recounts to try and find evidence of fraud (they didn’t).
US President Joe Biden in more casual shoes as he walks to Marine One as he departs from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, March 13, 2024
Biden has previously worn Hoka shoes on the campaign trail
In Phoenix Biden will discuss his 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, which helped boost semiconductor factory jobs in the area.
Arizona holds its primary on Tuesday, the day Biden is in the state. Progressives in the state are encouraging a protest vote against Biden over his handling of Israel’s war in Gaza. Organizers are urging Democrats to cast their ballots for Marianne Williamson.
Democrats are also hopeful about efforts in each of those states to put initiatives on the 2024 ballot that would enact a state constitutional right to abortion. The party successfully used the issue to rally its voters – particularly women – to the polls in the 2022 midterm.
‘With abortion on the ballot in both Nevada and Arizona, new, good-paying jobs to tout in clean energy and chips manufacturing, and organized labor behind us, the Biden-Harris campaign is in a strong position to continue to win these voters across the Southwest,’ Chavez Rodriguez said in her memo.