"When America gives its word, it means something," President Biden said Tuesday, blasting Donald Trump's remarks about NATO allies as "dangerous" and "un-American." On Saturday, Trump told a campaign rally in South Carolina that he would encourage Russia to do "whatever the hell they want" to alliance members that hadn't spent enough money on defense. Biden said Tuesday that Trump doesn't understand the "sacred commitment" of NATO membership, the Washington Post reports. "When he looks at NATO, he doesn't see the alliance that protects America and the world," Biden said. "He sees a protection racket."
Biden said the worst thing about Trump's remarks is that "he means it." "Can you imagine a former president of the United States saying that? The whole world heard it," Biden said, per the Guardian. "No other president in our history has ever bowed down to a Russian dictator. Let me say this as clearly as I can: I never will. For God's sake it's dumb, it's shameful, it's dangerous. It's un-American."
Biden noted that NATO's Article 5 mutual defense clause, which states that an attack on one member will be treated as an attack on all members, has been invoked only once, to stand with the US after the 9/11 attacks, the Post reports. Biden urged the House to pass the aid package for Ukraine and Israel that cleared the Senate early Tuesday. "Are you going to stand up for freedom or are you going to side with terror and tyranny?" he asked. "Will you stand with America or Trump?" (More President Biden stories.)