The following article by Rebecca Morin was posted on the Politico website February 6, 2018:
Former Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday said President Donald Trump has “some difficulty with precision” and that he would tell him to not consent to an interview with special counsel Robert Mueller.
“You are in a situation where the President has some difficulty with precision,” Biden told Chris Cuomo on CNN. “One of the things I would worry about if I were his lawyer is him saying something that was simply not true without him even planning to be disingenuous.”
Trump has said that he would be willing to speak under oath with Mueller, who is conducting an investigation on whether Russia colluded with Trump’s presidential campaign and related issues. The president, however, has frequently criticized the special counsel’s probe, often calling it a “witch hunt.”
Biden also said he “marvels” at some of the things Trump says, referencing the president calling Democrats “treasonous” for not standing up to cheer for him during his State of the Union speech.
When told that the White House called that a tongue-in-cheek comment, Biden was not sympathetic.
“Well, let me tell you, he’s a joke,” the former vice president said.
Biden clarified his statement by saying that Trump says “outrageously inaccurate things.”
“What presidents say matter,” he said. “Our children are listening. The world is listening. It matters what they say. And it’s just amazing the outrageously inaccurate things the president says.”
The former vice president also criticized the release of the GOP memo authored by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.). Biden said the memo was “irresponsible” and said it was meant to discredit the Justice Department.
“This is the first president to make a full-throated, unvarnished attack on the entirety of the FBI, not going after J. Edgar Hoover, who was one person in the FBI,” Biden said. “This is to discredit the FBI and discredit his own Justice Department.”
Biden continued: “I spent a lot of time traveling around the world. What do you think they’re thinking in Moscow? This is doing everything that [Vladimir] Putin ever wanted. Sowing doubt about whether or not our justice system is fair, sowing doubt about whether or not there is anything that’s remotely consistent with our Constitution. It’s a disaster.”
View the post here.