Biden says Trump 'undermines America's standing in the world'

Former US Vice President Joe Biden has censured President Donald Trump’s leadership, accusing his administration of misunderstanding and misrepresenting the American values.

In an op-ed published by The New York Times on Thursday, Biden delivered a stinging rebuke of Trump’s recent actions concerning his response to the Charlottesville violence during a white supremacist rally, his decision to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, and his administration’s view of foreign affairs.

“Mr. Trump’s shameful defense of the white nationalists and neo-Nazis who unleashed hatred and violence in Charlottesville, Va., further abnegated America’s moral leadership,” the former vice president wrote in the article.

“Not since the Jim Crow era has an American president so misunderstood and misrepresented our values,” he noted, referring to a period renowned for its segregation laws against the African American population in the US after the Civil War.

Last month, thousands of people across the US took part in protests against Trump and hate groups after white supremacists incited a bloody demonstration in Charlottesville, Virginia. A 32-year-old woman was killed and 19 others were injured when a 20-year-old Nazi sympathizer plowed his car into a crowd taking part in a counter-protest. After taking a mild stance initially, Trump finally bowed to overwhelming pressure and condemned the white supremacists for the deadly violence.

In the Thursday article, Biden also denounced trump’s decision to end DACA, which protected immigrants brought to the United States as children from deportation, saying that the move “betrays an unnecessary cruelty that further undermines America’s standing in the world.”

“Reclaiming our values starts with standing up for them at home — inclusivity, tolerance, diversity, respect for the rule of law, freedom of speech, freedom of the press,” he wrote. “If these are the democratic principles we wish to see around the world, America must be the first to model them.”

Almost 800,000 Dreamers live in the US, 70 percent of them having arrived as children from Mexico with 90 percent having been born in Latin America.

Meanwhile, the ex-vice president noted tension in some of America's key alliances, lamenting Trump’s decision to keep Germany at a distance while embracing Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"Around the world, including in the United States, we are seeing the resurgence of a worldview that is closed off and clannish. President Trump keeps longstanding allies such as Germany at arm's length, while expressing admiration for autocrats like Vladimir Putin who thwart democratic institutions," Biden claimed.

Since assuming office in January, the new US administration has been outdoing former President Barack Obama's legacy from pulling out of the Paris climate accord and the TTP trade deal to rolling back the policy toward Cuba.

Biden is widely seen as a potential contender for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020. He declined to run in 2016, citing the toll caused by the death of his oldest son, but the former VP and those close to him have signaled his interest in another bid.

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