President Biden’s campaign is increasingly out of sync with his administration’s positions, and White House officials appear to have their hands tied.
Officials have repeatedly refused to clarify the White House’s position on the issue when pressed, but privately acknowledged that any comments would harm the sitting president’s re-election efforts.
Hours before President Biden’s State of the Union address, in which he will emphasize the importance of NATO and contrast America’s support for the alliance with that of former President Donald Trump, the Biden campaign will include a major foreign policy statement. Fired an email. The right-wing prime minister of Hungary, a NATO ally, is described as a “dictator.”
President Trump meets Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán in Florida, insists Biden is “aiming for a dictatorship”
President Biden will speak Monday at the YMCA Allard Center in Goffstown, New Hampshire. (Jason Bergman/Bloomberg)
“Who is Donald Trump’s team? Let’s take a look at their rap sheets,” wrote Sarafina Titica, a spokesperson for Biden-Harris 2024 Rapid Response. “Donald Trump is starting the election with a front-runner that is sure to fend off moderate Republicans such as Hungarian dictator Viktor Orbán and convicted felon Roger Stone.”
Titled “Donald Trump: Who’s Wit?”, this punchy memo, written by 2019 Harvard graduate Chitika, mocks the end of Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson’s 2024 bid1 He was also responsible for the Democratic National Committee’s statement for the month. President Biden plans to instruct his chief of staff to apologize to Hutchinson by phone.
In the highly orchestrated world of foreign policy, statements representing the views of a sitting U.S. president are not made without careful consideration, much less in the footnotes of a campaign email. Indeed, Secretary of State Antony Blinken visibly winced when President Biden called Chinese Communist Party President Xi Jinping a dictator during a question from reporters at a recent summit. Titika’s comments about Hungary’s Orbán also come as the Biden administration withholds support for Ukraine’s NATO membership, citing good democratic standards.
U.S. officials have previously expressed deep concern about Hungary’s democratic backsliding and close ties to Russia, but no U.S. administration has labeled Hungary an authoritarian state. In 2014, Sen. John McCain sparked a diplomatic feud after the Hungarian foreign minister said in a speech that Hungary was “on the brink of ceding sovereignty to a neo-fascist dictator.” This led to the summoning of the US envoy.
In the days following Mr. Titika’s email, White House and campaign officials ignored or declined requests for comment. At a White House briefing on Tuesday, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan declined to say whether the United States officially considers the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) ally to be an authoritarian state.
At a White House briefing, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan declined to say whether the United States officially considers the NATO ally to be an authoritarian state. (Susan Walsh)
“I understand why you’re asking that question. I’m not speaking on behalf of the Biden campaign. Those questions should be directed to the campaign,” Sullivan said. “As a Biden administration, I would like to say that we make no bones about our deep concerns about Hungarian attacks on democratic institutions, including the judiciary, Hungarian corruption, and other erosion of Hungarian democracy by the leadership. That means it is.”
Orbán has publicly supported former President Donald Trump’s 2024 candidacy, including at a meeting in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, last week. Biden made the remarks Friday during a campaign stop near Philadelphia. ”[Trump] “I think President Putin is a strong and basically decent person,” Biden said, adding, “As you know, he’s meeting today at Mar-a-Lago in Orbán, Hungary. But he made it clear that democracy is not working. He is aiming for a dictatorship.”
Hungary protested Biden’s comments, calling them a “very serious insult” and a strain on bilateral relations, and demanded a meeting with the U.S. ambassador in Budapest. “We don’t have to accept such lies from anyone, even if that person is the president of the United States,” Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said at a press conference.
President Donald Trump (left) shakes hands with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in the West Wing of the White House on May 13, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Andrew Haller/Bloomberg)
Asked about the incident on Tuesday, Sullivan again tried to walk the fine line between supporting his boss’s campaign comments and his boss’s official government position. “The president stands by what he said and I’m not going to take back what he said,” Sullivan said. “All I want to say is that our position is completely consistent.”
In defiance of Trump, domestic Republicans plan to push TikTok bill that could ban the app
The Biden campaign also faces contradictions with the administration’s official stance. Acceptance of TikTok. The campaign reportedly announced last year that it would not participate in the app, but launched the account last month as part of a strategy to “reach voters where they are.”
The federal interagency committee known as CFIUS (Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States) is still reviewing its decision recommending a nationwide ban citing national security concerns, and the decision is coming back to the White House. This troubled the authorities. “All I can say is that it is not allowed on government devices, and that policy remains unchanged,” White House National Security Adviser John Kirby said at a Feb. 12 briefing. I cannot speak for the campaign’s decisions.”
Kirby declined to answer why the president would participate in videos on platforms that the administration views as threatening.
Biden reportedly announced last year that he would not participate in TikTok, but the Biden campaign launched the account last month as part of a strategy to “reach voters where they are.” (St. Petersburg)
This week, FBI Director Christopher Wray asserted in a Senate hearing that the app is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and poses serious national security concerns. Part of the reason is that the algorithms can be manipulated to help or hurt candidates in elections. 2024 US Election.
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“The important point is that the parent company is clearly beholden to the Chinese Communist Party,” Lei said.
Meanwhile, in the House of Commons on Wednesday. passed the bill With support from both Democrats and Republicans, TikTok could be banned from US app stores.
