Kasie Hunt: ‘Surprising’ Biden Criticized Trump, Republicans ‘When He Was on Foreign Soil’

Guest anchor Kasie Hunt said Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” that it was “surprising” President Joe Biden criticized former President Donald Trump and Republicans during the G-7, NATO summits in Europe.

During a press conference after meetings with world leaders, Biden said, “I think it is a shock and surprise that what’s happened in terms of consequence of President Trump’s phony populism has happened.”

He added, “I think it’s appropriate to say that the Republican party is vastly diminished in numbers, the leadership of the Republican party is fractured and the Trump wing of the party is the bulk of the party, but it makes up a significant minority of the American people.”

Reporting from Biden’s overseas trip, Andrea Mitchell said, “You know, Kasie, it really strikes me Joe Biden’s instinct to be bipartisan some in his party think too much. Covering him on the Hill as I used to as a Senator, he was always working across the aisle, and it seems as though this is kind of an indication that his skin might be a little thinner on this subject after some of the rejections on infrastructure that you have been covering so intensely.”

Hunt said, “Andrea, it was, I think, a little bit surprising to me that he did go as far as he did in talking about Republicans when he was on foreign soil despite, of course, the fact that, yes, President Trump broke that norm when he was in office over and over again. But, you know, I also think that one of the things that he tried to focus on in his remarks, especially considering the timing of the Putin meeting and how that is being set up, is that, you know, Vladimir Putin spent 2016 trying to sew descent among the American public. President Biden knows that unity at home is going to ultimately lead to increased national security abroad. Pushing that idea forward, I think, was part of the calculus there.”

She added, “I think Republicans back at home, I mean, some who grumbled and criticized him for doing that, but I think behind the scenes privately they’ll admit what he said is actually true. They are divided.”

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