Richard Grenell, former acting Director of National Intelligence, called former Vice President Joe Biden the “ultimate Washington insider” in a speech at the Republican National Convention (RNC) on Wednesday.
“Don’t be fooled — the Washington establishment is trying to sell you on their candidate,” he said.
“Joe Biden was first elected to the Senate in 1972 — 48 years ago. It’s actually the typical Washington story. Just this year, 22 Democrats ran for President. They rejected all the outsiders, and nominated the ultimate Washington insider — someone they had to pull out of retirement,” he said.
“Every time Joe Biden offers a new idea, you should ask yourself: “Why didn’t he try that over the last 48 years?”
Grenell, who has an extensive background in foreign policy, said a vote for Biden would be a return to a foreign policy that does not serve Americans:
After the end of the Cold War, Democrats and Republicans in Washington bought into the illusion that the whole world would start to resemble America. And so they started to pursue unlimited globalization.
They welcomed China into the World Trade Organization. They engaged in “nation-building” in Afghanistan, and tried to export democracy to Iraq. They signed a nuclear deal with Iran, and a global climate agreement in Paris.
But they didn’t ground any of it in the interests of the average American.
He said for decades, Washington politicians built a global system as American wages stagnated, great American cities and industries were hollowed out, communities were devastated, and manufacturing plants shipped off to China.
“That’s what happened when Washington stopped being the capital of the United States, and started being the capital of the world,” he said.
“A return to the Biden way of thinking means America gives the radical terrorist regime in Tehran a plane load of cash in the middle of the night,” Grenell said, referring to a secret arrangement to send Tehran $400 million in pallets of cash in previously-frozen Iranian funds in 2016.
He also blasted Biden for asking intelligence officials in January 2017 to unmask a Trump transition official that turned out to be incoming-National Security Adviser Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Michael Flynn.
“Former Vice President Joe Biden asked intelligence officials to uncover the hidden information on President Trump’s incoming National Security Advisor three weeks before the Inauguration,” Grenell said.
“But that’s the Democrats. Between surveillance, classifications, leaks, and puppet candidates, they never want the American people to know who’s actually calling the shots,” he added.
He said what he found as acting DNI made him “sick to my stomach.” He said:
The Obama-Biden Administration secretly launched a surveillance operation on the Trump campaign, and silenced the many brave intelligence officials who spoke up against it. They presented bogus information as facts. They lied to judges. Then they classified anything that undermined their case.
And after Donald Trump won the election, when they should have continued the American tradition of helping the president-elect transition into the White House, they tried instead to undercut him even more.
He said Trump also sent an aircraft in the middle of night to deal with Iran — but to take out terrorist leader Qasem Soleimani.
“That plane was on a different mission — an air strike to take out the head of Iran’s terror machine who plotted the deaths of Americans,” he said.
He said Trump also supported people seeking freedom in Hong Kong, Tehran, or Minsk. “We will always stand with the people who fight for their God-given freedoms.”
“Today, the Democrats blame a global pandemic that started in China on President Trump. And they still blame Russia for Hillary Clinton’s loss in 2016,” he said.
He said while Trump has been criticized for putting America first, “that’s the job of all leaders – to put their people first.”
He said Trump’s strategy has succeeded and he even convinced some Democrats to agree on the threat from China, trade deals, and allies sharing responsibility.
“In four years, Donald Trump didn’t start any new wars. He brought troops home. He rebuilt the military and signed peace deals that make Americans safer,” Grenell said.
“The Washington elites want you to think this kind of foreign policy is immoral. And so they call it ‘nationalist.’ That tells you all you need to know. The DC crowd thinks when they call Donald Trump a nationalist, they’re insulting him,” he said.
He added: “With Donald Trump and Mike Pence in the White House, the boss is the American people.”
Former Trump administration official Andrew Surabian applauded Grenell’s speech in a tweet:
“Grenell just took the hammer to Biden and the rest of Washington DC’s pro-endless war America last crowd. Great speech. #RNC2020“
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