and we see now the president approaching the lectum over at the state department [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] w [Applause] good afternoon I didn't say anything this would go on all afternoon for good reason Mr President it is an honor to welcome you back to the state department on day one of this Administration um you shared a few things with me you told me something that we long discussed uh reminded me that American engagement American leadership is essential if we're not engaged if we're not leading you said someone else is likely to be
doing it and probably not in a way that advances our interest of values or maybe no one's doing it and then we're likely to have a vacuum filled with bad things before it's filled with good things but the other thing you told me Mr President was that there's a greater premium than ever before on finding ways to cooperate to coordinate to work with other countries if we're going to get done what we need to get done for the American people and so you instructed me you instructed all of us to get out there to rebuild
to rejuvenate even to reimagine our alliances and Partnerships and I remember what you told me then you said we don't know when this is going to make a difference when we're going to need these friendships these Partnerships but someday some way somewhere they're going to be critical for advancing the national interest and that's exactly what the men and women of this department have done and we've been able to carry out that charge for two reasons first the people you see before you and so many others who are out in the field or embassies and consulates
you said when you came here four years ago that the leadership of diplomats of every strike doing the daily work of government is essential and they proved it that daily work has become nightly work 247 7 days a week hammering out agreements jumping into action uh in crisis creating opportunities for our citizens around the world producing expert advice for you and your team at the White House everyone here's know here knows this work can be tough um it's often not very glamorous but it makes us stronger it makes the world a better place and we
simply couldn't do it without the extraordinary men and women that you have before us as well as our remarkable Partners in government starting with the Great White House team led by Jake Sullivan my friends and colleagues from across the administration Secretary of Defense sman of power at USA ID the Secretary of the Treasury Commerce and so on uh all of these Partnerships that we built and built with their teams have made a difference so to all of my colleagues thank you thank you for your friendship thank you for your partnership there's one other reason that
we've been able to re-engage and rejuvenate our diplomacy Mr President that's you you have never wavered in the conviction that when America leads when America engages there is little we cannot accomplish and that this country remains a Force for good a force for Progress around the world your unshakable belief in the promise of America has inspired me for more than 20 years it's inspired so many people in this department and around the world simply put it's been the privilege of my lifetime to work for you to work with you to work with this extraordinary team
that you've assembled and it's the honor of a lifetime to be able to introduce one more time the 46th president of the United States Joe Biden thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you please thank you thank you thank you thank you it's good to be back at the state department Tony uh if I may start by saying this you're one of the finest men I've ever known in any undertaking for one important reason yeah you're not only brilliant you have incredible character you have character you have more Integrity than almost
anybody I knows thank you for always sticking with me appreciate it folks I'm grateful for his councel and his friendship as well but I also want to thank the members of my cabinet and the members of the Congress are here today and to all all our diplomats development experts service members and intelligent professionals many of the achievements we're going to discuss today were the result of your hard work and that's not hyperbole it's true thank you thank you thank you thank you for your extraordinary service now I come here to the state department report on
the America to the American people on the progress we've made in the last four years in our foreign policy and our presidency I've said many times we're at an inflection point the post Cold War period is over a new era has begun in these four years we Face crisis that we've been tested we've come through those tests stronger in my view than we entered those tests this is a fierce competition underway the future of the global economy technology human values and so much else right now in my view thanks to our Administration the United States
is winning the worldwide competition compared to four years ago America is stronger our alliances are stronger our adversaries and competitors are weaker we have not gone to war to make these things happen during my presidency I have increased America's power at every Dimension we increased our diplomatic power creating more allies in the United States as has ever had in the history of our nation we've increased our military power making the most significant investments in the defense industrial base in decades we've increased the technology power taking the lead in artificial intelligence and other Technologies of the
future and we've increase the economic power building the most dynamic economy in the world from the bottom up in the middle out not to top down in short Comm and I took office our nation had become stronger at home are stronger in the world and now America is more capable and I would argue better prepared and we've been a long long time while our competitors and adversaries are facing stiff headwinds we have the wind at our back because of all of you this is what we're heading into and over the next Administration that's what we're
handing it to today I want to lay out what we've done the opportunities we've created for America and those opportunities going forward today I can report to the American people our sources of National Power are far stronger than were than we took office our economy is booming although there's more work to do our Technologies from artificial intelligence to biotech Quantum to advanc semiconductors they're the Envy of the world and we have made the most significant investments in America and the American workers since the new deal to rebuild our roads and bridges our ports and airports
Clean Water Systems affordable high-speed internet so much more to build American manufacturing to make advanced semiconductors which we invented here at home we made the largest investment in climate and clean energy ever anywhere on Earth in the history of the world spurring nearly $500 billion in private sector investment we we' also significantly strengthened the defense industrial base investing almost $1.3 trillion procurement and research and development in real dollars that's more than America did in any four-year period during the Cold War it's going to ensure that we're fully equipped to fight and win Wars which is
also the best way to deter wars in the first place today I can report to the American people our alliances are stronger than they've been in decades NATO is more capable than it's ever been and many more of our allies are paying their fair share before I took office nine NATO allies are spending 2% of their GDP on defense Now 23 are spending 2% look at the Indo Pacific we made Partnerships stronger and created new Partnerships to challenge China's aggressive behavior and to rebalance power in the region we did it what few thought was possible
to build the first ever trilateral partnership between the United States Japan and South Korea then another among the United States Japan and the Philippines drawing closer our Pacific allies to defend our shared security and prosperity we broker to the defense pack known as Arcus among the United States Australia and the United Kingdom connecting the landing and Pacific allies as only America is able to do we've taken the quad to the next level United States Japan Austria Australia and India when we had that first meeting I was dumbfounded when they all called and said can we
do this at your house think I'm kidding my wife said no problem it was during the UN meeting and we thought we're going to do it in New York but they wanted to do it in Delaware I said why so we can now then people will know we're really friends our democracy with vibrant e economies working closely security supply chains technology and so much more in the Red Sea brought together more than 20 countries for to protect civili to protect civilian ships from attacked by the houthis defending freedom of navigation one of the world's busiest
waterways and we have strengthened Partnerships all across the Americas defending democracy targeting corruption addressing migration increasing prosperity and protecting Amazon rainforest which captures billions of tons billions of tons of carbon from the atmosphere every year overall we've reinvigorated people's faith in the United States as a true true partner today I can report to the American people our adversaries are weaker than were when we came into this job four years ago just consider Russia when Putin invaded Ukraine he thought he'd conquer ke in a matter of days the truth is since that War Began I'm the
only one that stood in the center of Kei not him who never had think about it it was a long train ride but I'm the only commander-in Chief to visit a war zone not controlled by US forces we help ukrainians stop Putin and now nearly three three years later Putin has failed to achieve any of his strategic objectives he has failed thus far to subjugate Ukraine fail to break the break the unity of NATO and failed to make large territorial gains there's more to do we can't walk away we rallied 50 Nations to stand with
Ukraine not just in Europe for the first for the first time in Asia as well those countries in Asia know what happens in Ukraine matters to them as well we delivered air interceptors massive numbers of munitions enacted Relentless unprecedented sanctions to keep Ukraine in the fight and now Russia is struggling to replace what they are losing on the battlefield in terms of military equipment and Fighters and the rubble is under enormous pressure as I saw it when Putin launched his invasion I had two jobs one to Rally the world to defend Ukraine and the other
is to avoid war between between two nuclear Powers we did both those things today Ukraine is still free independent country with the potential potential for a bright future and we laid the foundation for the next Administration so they can protect the bright future of the Ukrainian people and now look at Iran did you ever think we'd be where we are with Iran at this moment after those despicable attacks by Hamas October the 7th Iran directly attacked Israel twice with hundreds ballistic missiles and drones and twice they failed because the United States organized Coalition of countries
to stop them and Order US aircraft to come to the defense of Israel now Iran's air defenses are in shambles the main proxy Hezbollah is badly wounded and as we tested Iran's willingness to revive the nuclear deal we kept the pressure with sanctions now Iran's economy is in Desperate Straits all told Iran is weaker than it's been in decades and if you want more evidence if it seriously weakened Iran and Russia just take a look at Syria president Assad was both countries closest Ally in the Middle East neither neither neither could keep him in power
quite frankly neither really tried very hard now I cannot c credit for every factor that led to Iran and Russia growing weaker in the past four years they did plenty of damage all by themselves but Israel did plenty of damage to Iran and its proxies but there's no question our actions contributed significantly and now major authoritarian states are aligning more closely with one another Iran Russia China North Korea but that's more out of weakness than out of strength so as a new Administration Begins the United States is in a fundamentally stronger position with respect to
these countries than we were four years ago today I can report to the American people we're in a better strategic position in the long longterm competition with China and we were when I took office you all recall any experts believe were predicting it was inevitable that China's economy would surpass ours according to many predictions that would happen by the year 2030 or shortly thereafter but we in this room said no if we make the investments in ourselves we protect our workers and technologies that will not happen now according to the lat predictions on China's current
course they will never surpass us period I met one on one with President XI in consequential Summits he and I have always been direct and straightforward with each other I made it clear we expect China and everyone to abide by the international rules and so we stood up against unfair Trade Practices taking action when China dumps subsidized Goods incredibly subsidized on our markets to undercut our workers we impose Target tariffs critical sectors like cars steel and semiconductors rather than across the board tariffs we impos historic export controls on investments restrictions to ensure that China cannot
cannot use the most advanced technology and senstive data sensitive data against us and critically we enlisted our allies and partners to join us building more convergence among our allies on a shared approach to China than ever existed and showing that it's more effective to deal with China alongside of Partners rather than going to alone but even while we compete vigorously we've managed our relationship with China responsibly so it's never tipped over into conflict we've created lines of communic ation between President she and myself and between the leaders of our militaries to avoid misunderstanding we found
ways to work with each other to address climate change to reduce the flow of fentol in the United States which by the way overdose overdose deaths are coming down across our nation and in my Administration we've seiz more fenol at our border in two years than the previous five years combined today I can also report to the American people for the first president in decades who's not leaving a war in Afghanistan to his successor but we've got Ben Laden during the Obama Biden Administration the primary objective of War had been accomplished and I believe that
going forward the primary threat of al-Qaeda would no longer be emanating from Afghanistan but from elsewhere and so we not need to stay sizable number of American forces in Afghanistan so when I took office I had a choice ultimately I saw no reason to keep thousands of servicemen in Afghanistan I think I have my schedule with me and I keep under my I don't hear I don't have but I keep on the back of my card the actual number of dead and wounded that occurred in our longest war to remind myself keep spending hundreds of
millions of dollars a day we not longer doing that in my view it was time to end the war and bring our troops home and we did I commend the courage of all those who served in Afghanistan we grieve all 2,461 Americans made the El sacrifice in the longest war in American history and I grie those Brave service members whose lives are lost during the withdrawal we also thank those inside and outside of government who've done so much to help thousands of Afghan families resettle in the United States remember critics said if we enter the
war it would damage our alliances and create threats to our homeland from foreign director terrorism out of a safe haven in Afghanistan neither has occurred neither has occurred and our alliance have stayed strong we've used our over the Riz and capabilities of strike in Afghanistan and elsewhere when we had to for instance eliminating zahiri the leader of al-Qaeda who help orchestrate the September 11th attacks and we did it without putting more American boots on the ground and by ending the war we've been able to focus our energy and resources on more urgent challenges there is
nothing and I can tell you from my conversation with both shei and Putin nothing our adversaries in competitors like Russia and China would have liked more and seen us to continue to be tied down Afghanistan for another decade for all those reasons ending the war was the right thing to do and I believe history will reflect that and from the moment I entered office I also worked to free as many Americans as possible being held hostage wrongfully detained overseas we brought home more than 75 Americans by last count in some cases it took months even
years of effort like the prisoner swap with Russia over the past summer feat of diplomacy involving all many of you and involving multiple countries who joined complex negotiations at our request another example of the power of our alliances we did not have these relationship those women and women would likely still be imprisoned and finally I can report to the American people we restored our leadership and a range of other generational priorities when I took office we were no longer part of the international climate agreement we announced on day one we we joined the Paris Accord
rejoined and we've led by example we've conserved hundreds of millions of Acres hundreds of millions of acres of land and water more than any president in American history making investments in clean energy and convincing other nations to join us thanks to our efforts world has reached the goal of investing $100 billion every year in public and private funds to reduce Greenhouse emissions to drive down the cost of clean energy to help developing nations adapt to climate change our Administration has launched a transformative initiative to build high impact infrastructure in developing nations it's called PGI you
all know that better than anyone this is our alternative to what China offers with its massive projects across Africa and Beyond but their approach features no workers rights no Environmental Protections unmanageable debt shoty construction all in exchange for military access to Ports and other exploitive purposes by contrast we've levered $600 billion dollar unleash the private sector to build and infrastructure in order to grow economies and combat climate change as an example I was recently in Angola to see a major project being built with the help of American Public Funding was proring even more private investment
we're building the first ever Transcontinental Railroad across Africa will significantly improve the economies of the region will help farmers transport crops and new Global markets transport critical minerals that would that need are needed for electric vehicles and semiconductors China used to control the supply chains and these materials but not for long I make no mistake there are serious challenges the United States must continue to deal with in Ukraine in the Middle East in the Indo Pacific must keep the pressure on the houthis who are attacking ships in the Red Sea launching missiles at Israel and
firing in American forces must deter North Korea as they rattle their saber and draw closer to Russia a new challenge will certainly emerge in the months and years ahead but even but even so it's clear my Administration is leaving the next Administration with a very strong hand of play and we're leaving them and America with more friends and stronger alliances whose adversaries are weak and Under Pressure an America that once again is leading uniting countries setting the agenda bringing others together behind our plans and Visions in America which is no longer at War which has
made historic investments in American workers American energies American factories generating the strongest economy in the world which is now in a much better position to win the future against any competitor these wins are not partisan they're American they benefit all Americans and reflect America's endless capacity for leadership and reinvention look folks the United States should take full advantage of our diplomatic and geopolitical opportunities we've created to keep bringing countries together to deal with challenges posed by China to make sure Putin War Putin's war ends in a just and Lasting peace for Ukraine and to capitalize
on a new moment for more stable integrated Middle East to do that the next Administration must make sure the fall of Assad does not lead to the Resurgence of Isis in Syria across the region must carry forward the commitment that America will never never allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon on the war between Israel and Hamas we in the brink for a proposal that I laid out in detail months ago finally coming to fruition I have learned many years of Public Service to never never never ever give up so I spoke to prime minister
of Israel yesterday I spoke to the Mir cutter today I look forward to speaking with President CeCe soon we're pressing hard to close this the deal we have a structure would free the hostages halt the fighting provide security to Israel and allow us to significantly surge humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians whove suffered terribly in this war that Hamas started they've been through hell so many innocent people have been killed so many communities have been destroyed the Palestinian people deserve peace and the right to determine their own Futures Israel deserves peace and real security and the
hostage and their families deserve to be reunited and so we're working urgently to close this deal and as we deal with media challenges in my view we have to look to the future I urge the next Administration to carry forward two issues that have been Central to my presidency and would shape the future in my view on artificial intelligence we are in the lead and we must stay in the lead we must not offshore artificial intelligence as we once did with computer chips and other critical Technologies AI has the power to resharp reshape economies governments
National Security entire societies and it must be the United States and our closest allies that lead the way to ensure people's rights are respected their safety is protected and their data is secure and likewise clean energy transition will race ahead at the years to come I know some incoming Administration some in the incoming Administration are skeptical about the need for clean energy they don't even believe climate change is real I think they come from a different Century they're wrong they are dead wrong it's the single greatest existential threat to humanity the clean energy transition is
already happening China is trying to dominate the clean energy manufacturing critical materials Supply chains they want to capture the market of the future and create new dependencies the United States must win that contest and we will shape the global economy and the planet for decades to come let me close with this like many of you I've dedicated a significant portion of my career to our nation's foreign policy as chair of the Foreign Relations Committee as a senator vice president of for eight years and now president the United States I put together one of the most
competent foreign policy teams I would argue in American history sitting in this room and before my eyes throughout my career the world has gone undergone tremendous change but certain things have always held true at our best America leads not only by the example of our power but the power of our example the past four years we've used that power not to go alone but instead to bring countries together to increase shared security and prosperity to stand up to aggression to solve problems through diplomacy wherever possible and to relentlessly defend democracy civil rights and human rights
because that that's who we are that's who we are you heard me say it many times before we're the only country on Earth founded on idea every other country is founded on geography religion ethnicity or some other unifying Factor but America was built on an idea on an idea literally not figuratively that idea was all women men are created equal the idea that is in inspired the world for 250 years in counting we're always reaching to do better always looking to the Future not our best always seeking progress for our people and for people everywhere
it's been the honor of my life to serve as your president today I'm optimistic about our future as optimistic as I've ever been just SE remember who in the hell we are heard me say it many times we the United States of America for God's sake there is nothing nothing nothing beyond our capacity we do it together and commit to it nothing so thank you all for all you've done I hope many of you are going to be staying in the next Administration to keep this moving may God bless you all and may God protect
our troops thank you thank you thank you thank you all my we have been watching President Biden speak at the state department in his final foreign policy speech he thanked all of our diplomats and service members for their extraordinary service the President says the US is stronger after his presidency and our adversar are weaker topics range from artificial intelligence to Foreign Wars to clean energy and climate change let's go to CBS News senior White House and political correspondent Edo Keefe who joins us now Ed like always you were spot on in your preview of what
we were expecting to hear um what stood out to you about some of the top lines we know it was very wide ranging uh that he suggested that a lot of this can be inherited and continued by the Trump Administration if they just so choose to continue it um and those warning about artificial intelligence and the threats of climate change I that was echoed earlier today by his National Security adviser Jake Sullivan in the daily briefing when he was asked what do you think is the biggest challenge sort of left unresolved or that remains out
there for the next Administration he said it was artificial intelligence and whether it will be used for good or for bad you heard the president there suggest that while the United States has the edge it has to maintain that and has to be using it responsibly for the greater good uh but a pretty vifer defense and detailed at times about elements of the work that he's done making the case that by buoying NATO by expanding Partnerships in the indopacific by working to weaken Russia's military and Iran's influence across the Middle East his has been a
successful foreign policy and administration notable that he signals there that we are pretty close it sounds like to some kind of an agreement between Israel and Hamas now how many times have we heard that over the last 15 plus months we have heard it several times times but what's different in the last few days is that the leaders are now talking to each other the president and the Prime Minister speaking yesterday for the first time that we know of at least publicly since October the fact that the Israelis sent a delegation to Cutter to work
on some of the final uh details of the agreement and that a final draft has been sent to Hamas leadership leaves this White House quite optimistic that we may be on the verge of some kind of an agreement between Hamas and Israel and the president encouraging everyone there to get it done noting that it would help secure Israel it would help work the Palestinian people closer to peace and their own security uh and try to resolve what has been a real mark on his administration at least over the last 15 16 months or so uh
but a pretty receptive audience there as he continues to work the room and speak with State Department officials there were a handful of lawmakers there other cabinet secretaries over at the state department a place he'd been and knows well having served once as the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee he had Direct oversight of what goes on in that building and then of course his president uh he has had a keen interest in what exactly those diplomats have been up to so pretty you know full-throated defense a lot of it could be picked apart of
course and of course this talk about expanding NATO for example some could argue it wouldn't have needed to expand it and there wouldn't have been a rush to join it had he been able to convince Vladimir Putin not to invade Ukraine in the first place but spinning that situation into a positive by suggesting it's bolstered NATO more members are paying into it more money than they ever have before which you'll recall was a big concern and request of then president Trump back in the day uh he sees that as a win and uh his his
his final days here will continue with other appearances throughout the rest of the week Lindsay Ed stay with us if you can I want to bring in a military analyst major Mike Lions major thank you very much for joining us uh I want to ask you your thoughts as well and if there was anything uh what Ed said that you wanted to piggy back off of yeah I wasn't surprised he doubled down tripled down on a lot of things and the platitudes they he gave himself his administration but in a lot of ways foreign policy
is a function of what happens over the horizon as he turns over this uh this country to new president new Administration there's going to be a lot of changes with regard how how things are running uh I think the the overall the Biden foreign policy wasn't bad um I think that uh it made ex strides for example in the Far East with with Korea and with with Japan in certain ways there and as he as he brought up in in this comments um I think the situation in Ukraine is very critical right now and the
fact that he set this up that if the Trump Administration doesn't support Ukraine doesn't send the kind of billions of dollars that the submited administration's been sending him that Ukraine loses this war in 12 to 18 months and I think that's a catastrophe so uh he's he's kind of laid the groundwork for uh the Trump Administration to be not successful based on what he knows that they're going to do as well which he doesn't believe that they're going to support it um I think the situation in the Middle East um again remains um very tenuous
you have the Iranians they're surely weak and whether the question is whether Israel goes after um the Iranian nuclear capability he did say in the speech that he didn't think Iran should ever have this capability uh but there most people are convinced in the world that it's not going to be negotiated away it's going to take a military strike but but overall I wasn't surprised he did talk about Afghanistan I think that's a sore point I do think that it's a positive that we're out of Afghanistan I think the point was how we left was
what most people are concerned about uh and uh and those family members that of those service members that were killed there uh and that was unnecessary but but overall wasn't surprised in what what the president said today and how he felt his his administration did in the foreign policy perspective and we will talk more about Afghanistan with Ed because he did uh ask Jake Sullivan about that today when it comes to Ukraine one of President Biden's most forceful comments that he made today was when Putin invaded Ukraine he thought he conquered Kei in a matter
of days I'm the only one standing in the center of Kei do you think uh in addition to what Ed was saying that he was saying that this could be continued on if the Trump Administration deems so he was also trying to highlight the differences in his platform and what he believes he accomplished over the last four years and what Trump ran on which is more of an American first mentality no I think so I don't think there's anything wrong with an American first mentality I think it communicates intent and I think our allies want
America to act first in foreign policy because it helps them as long as it's communicated but when you bring this back to Ukraine they only survive with the support from the United States and the NATO countries there and that's what the concern I think President Biden has is that President Trump said that wouldn't happen and I think president Trump if you months ago was more more of a strong armed he could negotiate with Putin he was going to get this done but I think the last few months Putin has has signaled that he's not willing
to negotiate he wants the whole thing he's not he's not willing to lose on any level and I think this this is going to be a very tough uh problem set for this incoming Administration uh and forcing Ukraine to take less forcing Ukraine to lose their land areas that Russia had controls or doesn't get the security um commitments that it wants I think that's going to look like Russia has won so and if the world allows Russia to win here then what have we gotten the last three years we haven't um we haven't moved that
forward so I do think that the Trump Administration will be somewhat forced to keep this going because Russia is not that weak they're not as they they could still win in 12 to 18 months based on what their capability is and based on the fact that if Americans uh and America as well as other native countries don't support the situation there uh Ukraine would be in big trouble so I want to ask a little bit about that because I had Ian Brer from the Eurasian group on last week about what they deem the the greatest
Global risks are in 2025 and it sort of is in line with what uh secretary of state blinkin was saying according to the Eurasia group one of the biggest concerns if not the biggest is a is a vacuum uh at the Forefront of global politics uh secretary blinkin said today that one of the first things that Biden told him in his presidency was if we aren't leading someone else is and not in a way that advances our values or if no one is leading then we are in a vacuum do you share any of those
concerns moving forward into the next Administration I think this next Administration is going to put forward a much greater signal of deterence that this last one didn't for example we just really downward managed the the conflict in in Ukraine um we whipsawed back and forth with support for Israel frankly in terms of we gave them the military support that they needed we didn't what does downward manage mean well we didn't we didn't necessarily we're we're we're supporting Ukraine in a way that just keeps them from losing we're not we've not given them we've not given
them the offensive capability that allows them to go win and actually bring Russia to the negotiation table so we've not we we've just we've just managed the decline as a and and the defense inside any person in the military knows nothing changes unless you go on the offense look at Desert Storm 0 in 1991 we we defended for a while and said you know what the only way things change is when we go on the offense and so we haven't given them that that full-throated kind of support in Ukraine to go on the offense we've
just in the last few months allowed Ukraine to use milit Western uh assets to attack inside of Russia but isn't a to Ukraine considered more tenuous under a trump Administration we don't know the kind of funding or Aid they're going to be giving to Ukraine no question I think that the TR the fund administr the Trump Administration could shut a lot a lot of that Aid down and that Aid is not cash I don't want people to think that we're writing checks to oligarchs or anything like that there and what they've done is they've opened
up the they've opened up the factories and they've opened up military supplies and they've um artillery weapons and the like they they've really um you know given Ukraine all it can get there there still a logistical challenge of getting it there and all the things that go with that but but it also still not just write writing a check doesn't necessarily mean Ukraine is going to be able uh to to win they they still need to change some of their tactics they still need to have uh different material and and they have a recruiting problem
themselves so so again the situation there is potentially catastrophic for the Trump Administration if they don't um manage it well and figure out a way to get Russia to the table without uh in a manner that also Russia doesn't think that they can attack their their neighbors and and and change the world order major allines we'll have to leave it there for today but I've really enjoyed our conversation I look forward to many more with you thank you so much thanks Ry let's go back to Ed O'Keefe now at the White House so Ed uh
I know that you had an exchange today in the briefing room with Jake Sullivan let's go ahead and play that historians one day will write the history of the Biden foreign policy and I end up summarizing it in two to three sentences how would you write those two to three sentences I would say that we made our alliances stronger we made our enemies weaker we made America sources of strength stronger and we did all of that while keeping America out of war and I didn't hear you mention Afghanistan in your opening at all how is
that going to be addressed in the speech how would he explain or defend it at this he will address Afghanistan in the speech and and it was in a sense reference because I said we kept America out of war in fact President Biden ended America's longest war after 20 years this was obviously the National Security advisor prior to the speech but Ed what did we hear from the president regarding Afghanistan which we just heard uh from major Alliance was a sore spot for the administration he made the argument again Lindsay that he had made at
the time of the decision uh being announced which was if we pull out of this war that has the devil now five presidents it will allow us to refocus and reenter our priorities on other parts of the world yes it did allow that but it did that in part because a vacuum was created and the argument was of course that Russia filled it by invading Ukraine and drawing us into that part of the world in that conflict instead of putting more resources and attention into the indopacific relationship which he spent a fair amount of time
on uh but probably in hindsight would have liked to have spent more time countering China working with those other democracies uh there in the Indo Pacific and in and in eastern Asia and so again wasn't a big part of the speech but felt the need obviously to explain and defend that decision again which remember was supported by a majority of Americans ending the war in Afghanistan what caused a big downturn in his popularity raised questions about his management and his competency his ability to lead and to deal with foreign crises was the botched withdrawal the
chaos that ensued and of course the 13 dead US service members uh and and all the other chaos that was seen as people were evacuated and what was still the largest successful military airlift of civilians out of any country uh and done so relatively safely so uh you know they felt the need to address it it obviously wasn't a big deal because it was a real Sour turning point in that first year of the presidency that of course came around the same time as concerns about inflation were picking up uh and early concerns about his
ability to even do the job with signs that that age perhaps was beginning to set in and so you know 2021 we can remember was a really tough time and a tough turn that late summer into the fall uh which began with Afghanistan that's why you heard so much Focus instead today on things that came after that Ukraine the situation in the Middle East the expansion of NATO the expansion of Indo Pacific Partnerships and his concerns going into the future about artificial intelligence and climate change okay Ed Keef always good to hear from you thank
you
