Endorsements can often make a difference in an election. In 2020, Biden’s primary campaign was headed to certain defeat after back-to-back losses in Iowa and New Hampshire, coming in fourth place and fifth place, respectively. It took the endorsement of Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) to turn things around and save Biden’s campaign.
Joe Biden currently trails in the polls, both nationally and in battleground states, and perhaps a high-profile endorsement could turn things around for him.
He's gotten a high-profile endorsement, though perhaps not the one he was hoping for. According to a report from the Financial Times, Putin told Russian television he would like to see Joe Biden defeat Donald Trump in the 2024 election.
When asked who was "better for us" between Trump and Biden, Putin said the latter.
"Biden," he replied without hesitation. "He is a more experienced, predictable person, a politician of the old school."
Putin added, "But we will work with any U.S. president who the American people have confidence in."
The left has long claimed that Trump was (and maybe still is) a Russian asset and that he colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 presidential election. Despite the absurdity of the claims, several investigations took place, none of which found any evidence. Former top Obama administration officials also admitted that they never had any empirical evidence of collusion.
The truth is that the allegations were born out of "evidence" that Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration manufactured, and according to intelligence declassified in April 2020 Obama’s CIA Director John Brennan suppressed evidence that Russia wanted to help Hillary Clinton win in 2016 “and put forward lower quality intelligence to claim the Russians backed Trump.”
Biden has even continued to push the narrative that Russia wants Trump and that Putin was afraid of Biden becoming president.
Related: Tucker Carlson Explains Why He's Interviewing Vladimir Putin
"Vladimir Putin doesn’t want me to be President," Biden claimed in a tweet during the 2020 presidential campaign. "He doesn’t want me to be our nominee. If you’re wondering why — it’s because I’m the only person in this field who’s ever gone toe-to-toe with him."
Upon taking office, the tough talk continued, but the reality is that Putin has walked all over him. He warned Putin not to invade Ukraine, yet Putin did just that. The weakness Biden projected then (and since) has resulted in a war that has lasted nearly two years.
“If I were in office, this deadly Ukraine situation would never have happened,” Trump said at the outset of the invasion, and he was likely right. Despite the constant attacks from the media and the Democrats, Trump’s America First foreign policy kept us and our allies safe.
The American people agreed, too. A Harvard Center for American Political Studies (CAPS)-Harris Poll found that 62% of voters believe Putin wouldn’t have invaded Ukraine if Trump had been in office. Nearly four out of ten Democrats even believed that Trump would have deterred Putin, which says a lot.
So while some might say that Putin was speaking in jest, the evidence strongly suggests that Putin would rather have Joe Biden to walk all over for the next four years than have to deal with a much stronger Trump.
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