Former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. since leaving the White House.
Mr Biden did not mention his successor in an interview with the BBC. But, in the context of an unwritten rule with the former president, he criticized some of Mr. Trump's actions as president – including his combative meeting in February with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office.
“I found it happening in the way that it happened under the United States,” Biden said in an interview, noting that Mr. Trump called for the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico, retrieving the Panama Canal and acquiring Greenland.
“What the hell is going on? What president is talking about? That's not who we are.” “We're about freedom, democracy, opportunity, not about confiscation.”
Mr Biden said the Trump administration's proposal that Ukraine ceded Crimea to Russia was a “modern comfort” of the peace plan. “Anyone who thinks he wants to stop is stupid,” Beden refers to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Mr Biden was asked if he thinks he should withdraw from the 2024 presidential campaign earlier. Mr. Biden announced his withdrawal from the competition on July 21, about 100 days before the election. “I don't think it's important,” he told investigator Nick Robinson, who said.
“We left when we had a good candidate and she was fully funded,” he added, referring to his Vice President Kamala Harris, who became a Democratic candidate.
Mr Biden, who hinted in his 2020 campaign, said in an interview that he was ready to hand over to the next generation, rather than running again. “But things move so fast that it's hard to get away, it's just a tough decision,” he said.
Mr Biden said he was worried about the future of global democracy if his allies no longer view the United States as a reliable leader. He noted that Sweden and Finland both joined NATO and strengthened the alliance during their presidency. “For four years, we have someone who wants to get rid of everything,” Biden said.
“I'm worried that Europe will lose confidence in the certainty of the United States and its leadership,” he said.
He said the possibility that the NATO alliance could die was a “serious concern”.
“We are the only country with the ability to bring people to the world, otherwise you will have China and the former Soviet Union, and Russia will step up,” he said.
If NATO does not exist, Mr. Biden asked at one point: “Do you think Putin will stop in Ukraine?” He added: “I don't understand how they don't understand the power of the alliance,” clearly referring to Trump administration officials.
Mr. Trump often picked out his ex in the second semester, which the Times analysis found that he publicly mentioned Biden's name on average more than six times a day in the first 50 days of his tenure. When asked if Mr. Trump acted more like a monarch than a president, Mr. Biden said carefully: “He did not act like a Republican president.”
