Biden: I’ll Arrange with World Leaders to Criticize Them So They Have Political Cover

During an interview with the “On Purpose with Jay Shetty” podcast released on Monday, President Joe Biden revealed that sometimes he agrees to criticize world leaders so they can have political cover to do what they want to do.

Biden stated, “I get credit for — these days, for sort of holding the international community together and I try to understand the circumstance the other world leader is facing and see if there’s a way — what needs to be done, there’s a way through that he doesn’t or she doesn’t have to make a great sacrifice to do what she’s doing, but help make the case why they’re helping others. But there [are] ways to that. And this doesn’t require the person — if there’s — if they have a fundamental difference with you on the subject, but if they’re doing something because they don’t have the political bandwidth to be able to do it at home, you can provide it. I will say to some leaders sometimes, well, why don’t you let me criticize you for this or thank you for that, and most of the time — now, you don’t do it off the top of your head, you’ve got to know some of these people — they’ll go, okay. Or why don’t you criticize me, why don’t you criticize me for my not doing something, and then I’ll respond and say, okay, and then you can do what you want to do.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett