Biden says ‘all the bad guys’ are rooting for Trump to win
President Joe Biden claimed without specifying evidence that foreign adversaries are meddling in the 2024 election to benefit former President Donald Trump.
“I think China would have an interest—let me put it like this—would have an interest in meddling,” Biden told Time Magazine in response to a question about whether Beijing is meddling in the election. “Everybody, all the bad guys are rooting for Trump, man. Not a joke. Think about it. Think about it.”
It’s unclear what evidence Biden might be referencing. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines testified before Congress last month that Russia, China, and Iran are all looking to interfere with the election. The rise of artificial intelligence has exacerbated those worries.
“Specifically, Russia remains the most active foreign threat to our elections,” Haines testified before the Senate Intelligence committee. “The Russian government’s goals in such influence operations tend to include eroding trust in U.S. democratic institutions, exacerbating sociopolitical divisions in the United States, and degrading Western support to Ukraine.”
In a lengthy interview with Time, Biden repeatedly emphasized the differences between his and Trump’s foreign policy. As he has had before, Biden also claimed that foreign leaders have expressed to him fears about what may happen if his predecessor returns to power.
“My democracy and their democracy is at stake,” Biden told Time, a transcript of their conversation was published on Tuesday. “My democracy is at stake. And so name me a world leader other than Orban and Putin who think that Trump should be the world leader in the United States of America.”
Trump has repeatedly praised Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, even as their authoritarian policies raise concern throughout the West.
Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Trump, said Biden “should stop gaslighting the American people to distract from his own issues.”
“Crooked Joe Biden has been endorsed by Vladimir Putin because he knows another Biden Administration means a weaker America,” Cheung said .
Putin said in February that Russia would prefer that Biden win in November because his leadership is “more predictable.” Putin’s comments were surprising given that Biden has helped lead the response to Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine, which has included the historic expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
“He is a more experienced, predictable person, an old-school politician,” Putin said.
