Subject: Politico: Biden rebukes Trump's foreign policy as dangerous
From: "Garcia, Walter" <[email-masked]>
To: Comm_D <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 11 May 2016 10:58:44 -0700

Dangerous!

Biden rebukes Trump's foreign policy as dangerous<http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/joe-biden-donald-trump-foreign-policy-dangerous-223070>

By NICK GASS<http://www.politico.com/staff/nick-gass>

Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday ripped into Donald Trump's view of the world, warning that the real estate mogul would unravel the great strides the Obama administration has made with its foreign partners.

Laying out his vision for the role of the United States and its partners in the Western Hemisphere, Biden delivered a sweeping address in which he trumpeted that the prevailing mood in the region is changing for the better.

But he offered a not-so-subtle dig at the policy proposals of Republicans and of their presumptive nominee Donald Trump, including a plan to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants and build a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico.

"By insulting our partners throughout the hemisphere, by tarring all immigrants with a xenophobic brush, some leaders are actively undermining our security and prosperity," Biden told an audience at the University of Tampa at an event hosted by the Florida city's Chamber of Commerce.

He cautioned that, should the U.S. pull back from the world and "put up barriers," whether "physical or political, we're only going to sabotage our own success. And that's true when it comes to building walls or rolling back engaging with Cuba or failing to ratify legitimate trade agreements. It's true of policies that alienate more than 55 million Americans of Hispanic descent, more than 4 million a vast majority of whom are citizens here in the state of Florida. Everyone-everyone-everyone is entitled to be treated with dignity and respect. It's basic. It's just basic."

Over the course of the Obama administration, there has been "literally a shift in attitude about U.S. motives and our willingness to participate," Biden remarked earlier in his speech.

"And so I'm proud to say that today-I think I can say without fear of contradiction-our relationships in the neighborhood are as good as they've ever been in American history," he said. That does not mean there are not disagreements, but Americans' "willingness to engage with seriousness and with respect has changed the way the leaders and I would argue the people of the region view us," Biden remarked, from the countries of the Caribbean throughout the Americas.

Such an attitude is critical, Biden said, "because the Western Hemisphere is not the same place it was 20 years ago or even 10 years ago. Today the nations of the Americas are defined by opportunity by and large, not crisis."

Challenges linger, the vice president acknowledged, but there have been "vital shifts," pointing to the "expansion of trade and regional economic growth [that] has helped bring tens of millions of people out of poverty into the middle class."

Absent from Biden's remarks were any explicit mention about the role that such trade agreements have played in the presidential primary, including in his own party.

"With courage and determination, the people of the region have made democracy the established norm," he said. "There are exceptions, but it's become the norm rather than the exception. We're increasingly seeing political pragmatism replace populism."

Making note of the U.S.' reopened relations with Cuba, Biden remarked upon "new opportunities for U.S. business and emerging Cuban private sector."

"And it's engendered greater personal connection with the citizens of Cuba," he said. "And here's the thing: I've had a chance to meet every leader of every country in the hemisphere, and the single act of beginning to normalize relationship with Cuba has lifted an enormous burden off them, allowing them much more flexibility to deal with us as they want to do. It's had multiple benefits so far. It's paid important foreign policy dividends."

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Walter Garcia
Western Regional Press Secretary
Democratic National Committee (DNC)
Email: [email-masked]<mailto:[email-masked]>
Twitter: @WalterGarcia231<https://twitter.com/WalterGarcia231>
[SigDems]<http://www.democrats.org/>