On Tuesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” 2020 Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden said ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed by the U.S. military “in spite of” the actions of President Donald Trump.
Biden said, “Look, Baghdadi was a bad man, no redeeming value. He killed a lot of innocent people, and he’s responsible for more killing. To compare one to the other — the things I compare are the incredible special forces we have and the risks they take and their incredible capacity.”
He continued,” Whether it’s Baghdadi or Bin Laden, it takes months and months of detailed planning. And the idea in the reports that are coming out now that in light of the fact that this was going on, that they were getting ready to move against Baghdadi, and the president of the United States precipitously withdraws troops from the same area where we need people on the ground, the reports that I’ve read in the major press is that he made it much more difficult for the Delta Force to do their job. They had to fly all the way from — at least it’s reported, from Irbil and Iraq. They had to go over — I mean, he just made everything— it got pulled off in spite of his actions. The military is incredible. They’ve done just a phenomenal job. And I have great faith in them. My lord, the president should stay in his lane and listen to the military and not go off on these rants he goes on, why he’s going to pull everybody. Now, what is he doing? He says we’re going to keep troops in Iraq to protect the oil fields and we’re going to take the oil. That’s like putting up a 500-foot recruiting banner for ISIS. I mean, he just doesn’t seem to understand anything about foreign policy.”
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