Fmr Defense Secretary Gates: ‘I Stand by That Statement’ Biden Had Not Been Right on Any Major Foreign Policy in 40 Years

Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Tuesday said he stood by his prior statements slamming presumptive Democratic Party presidential nominee Joe Biden had not been right “on any major foreign policy issue in 40 years.”

Gates pointed to Biden on the Cold War and later while in the Obama administration as vice president to make his case.

“I stand by that statement,” he said. “I will say, Hugh, it related mainly to things that had happened in the Cold War. Biden voted against every single arms program, I think, that Ronald Reagan put up on the Hill. He voted for the Iraq war and so on. So I do have those policy differences with him. I will [admit] in the Obama administration, we did have a very deep disagreement on Afghanistan. And that was a big deal. But on issues like intervening in Libya and dumping Mubarak in Egypt, I was, he and I actually were on the same side on those issues.”

“So you know, and the other thing I write about in the book that hasn’t gotten much attention is that I also think that the Vice President had some issues with the military,” Gates continued. “And I wrote in ‘Duty’ about how he would warn the President that he was being boxed in, that the military was trying to take away his options and so on. And he’d kind of rail at the generals. And that bothered me some. So you know, there are puts and takes with any presidential candidate. He brings a decency and an integrity and so on to the race, but I did have these issues with him.”

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