Joe Biden has been one of America’s most consequential presidents, as well as a dear friend and partner to me. Today, we’ve also been reminded — again — that he’s a patriot of the highest order.
Sixteen years ago, when I began my search for a vice president, I knew about Joe’s remarkable career in public service. But what I came to admire even more was his character — his deep empathy and hard-earned resilience; his fundamental decency and belief that everyone counts.
Since taking office, President Biden has displayed that character again and again. He helped end the pandemic, created millions of jobs, lowered the cost of prescription drugs, passed the first major piece of gun safety legislation in 30 years, made the biggest investment to address climate change in history, and fought to ensure the rights of working people to organize for fair wages and benefits. Internationally, he restored America’s standing in the world, revitalized NATO, and mobilized the world to stand up against Russian aggression in Ukraine.
More than that, President Biden pointed us away from the four years of chaos, falsehood, and division that had characterized Donald Trump’s administration. Through his policies and his example, Joe has reminded us of who we are at our best — a country committed to old-fashioned values like trust and honesty, kindness and hard work; a country that believes in democracy, rule of law, and accountability; a country that insists that everyone, no matter who they are, has a voice and deserves a chance at a better life.
This outstanding track record gave President Biden every right to run for re-election and finish the job he started. Joe understands better than anyone the stakes in this election — how everything he has fought for throughout his life, and everything that the Democratic Party stands for, will be at risk if we allow Donald Trump back in the White House and give Republicans control of Congress.
I also know Joe has never backed down from a fight. For him to look at the political landscape and decide that he should pass the torch to a new nominee is surely one of the toughest in his life. But I know he wouldn’t make this decision unless he believed it was right for America. It’s a testament to Joe Biden’s love of country — and a historic example of a genuine public servant once again putting the interests of the American people ahead of his own that future generations of leaders will do well to follow.
We will be navigating uncharted waters in the days ahead. But I have extraordinary confidence that the leaders of our party will be able to create a process from which an outstanding nominee emerges. I believe that Joe Biden’s vision of a generous, prosperous, and united America that provides opportunity for everyone will be on full display at the Democratic Convention in August. And I expect that every single one of us are prepared to carry that message of hope and progress forward into November and beyond.
For now, Michelle and I just want to express our love and gratitude to Joe and Jill for leading us so ably and courageously during these perilous times — and for their commitment to the ideals of freedom and equality that this country was founded on.
Happened across two events, the Syrian uprising against Bashar Al Assad, who was a Russian ally, and the 2014 annexation of Crimea.
Obama was generally trying to navigate a more diplomatic approach to the Russians, and reluctant to take any harsh actions against Putin. But starting in Syria, the Arab Spring had led to a revolt against Assad, and he was rapidly pushed back. Before he fell, Russia stepped in with their military and helped him push the rebels back. We had an opportunity to intervene ourselves after Obama stated that the use of chemical weapons would be a “red line” for us. He ended up using chemical weapons anyway, and we declined to intervene in any significant way. With Assad backed by the Russian military and the rebels backed by nobody’s big military, they ended up getting crushed and Assad is still in power there to this day. With a Russian military presence helping him stay secure.
Then in 2014, despite the Budapest Memorandum giving the US and UK some measure of responsibility for securing Ukrainian territorial integrity, when Putin quickly seized Crimea we basically did very little, just some minor sanctions and arms to the Ukrainians if I remember right.
Then a lesser thing, when it became apparent that Russia was using influence operations to meddle in our elections, he again did very little. This one is a little more forgiveable, since it was the end of his term and what even can you do? Still frustrating though.
All together, it became a pattern of being soft on Russia that Putin took advantage of, and imo helped lead to the Russo-Ukrainian War today.
What I would have liked to see instead, with the benefit of hindsight, is limited engagement in Syria to strike Russian assets, or perhaps a no-fly-zone over Syria, though that would be diplomatically difficult without UN support. After Crimea, very robust sanctions (which would’ve been problematic for the Europeans dependent on Russian energy exports), major upscaling of aid to the Ukrainians and a defense treaty. After the meddling, well, he could have at least gave a Presidential address about it or something, I dunno.
Thanks for your thoughtful input.
In ukrainian case I too feel like the sanctions’ way could’ve been troubled, but there could’ve been the case if not for some mini-lend-lease for official government and their weakened troops but for an involved peacemaking mission in a hot warzone of Luhansk and Donetsk if that issue had been taken seriously. There’s probably some PTSD from Balkans, but I can see how it could’ve been more effective at ceasefire than Minsky accords and probably saved MH-17 in the future. Besides, this angle of this russian covert offensive was to make sure the Crimean peninsula is sustained and without that they’ve been ought to build a bridge to reach it and struggled with water supply all the way up to 2022, that was probably another reason for the open war. There are probably some scenarios how it could’ve been happened differently if Obama and EU got more into that situation.
Idk how it works tho.