News surfaced that Hillary Clinton is considering tapping Joe Biden to be her Secretary of State should she win the presidency which is very strange when you consider their respective backgrounds
October 28, 2016
Strange Trial Balloon: Clinton Floats Biden As Secretary Of State
Late last night, news surfaced that Hillary Clinton is considering tapping current Vice President Joe Biden to be her Secretary of State should she win the presidency.
It’s an odd story considering that the Vice President has strongly disagreed with Hillary Clinton on virtually every major national security challenge over the past eight years, as reported by The New York Times when Biden was considering a Democrat primary challenge to Clinton last year:
- Osama bin Laden raid: Clinton supported President Obama’s decision to send special forces on raid into Pakistan to kill Osama bin Laden; Biden told Obama, “Mr. President, my suggestion is don’t go.”
- Iraq: Clinton supported keeping a residual force behind in Iraq; Biden opposed it.
- Afghanistan: Clinton argued for larger troop surge to Afghanistan in 2009; Biden argued for smaller one and public deadline for withdrawal.
- Libya: Clinton argued for use of force to topple Muammar el-Qaddafi; Biden opposed it.
- Syria: Clinton argued for training and equipping opposition forces in Syria; Biden did not.
- TPP: Clinton announced opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal; Biden endorsed it.
Biden also used his speech announcing that he was passing on a 2016 presidential campaign to argue “against her brand of interventionism in the Middle East and elsewhere”:
But he also used the speech to chide Mrs. Clinton. Without mentioning her by name, he criticized her assertion in last week’s debate that Republicans are her enemies. “They are our opposition; they’re not our enemies,” he said, repeating a point he made several times in the previous 48 hours.
He likewise argued against her brand of interventionism in the Middle East and elsewhere. “The argument that we just have to do something when bad people do bad things isn’t good enough,” he said. “It’s not a good enough reason for American intervention and to put our sons’ and daughters’ lives on the line, put them at risk.”
It would be very odd indeed for a president to nominate as America’s top diplomat someone who has disagreed so strongly with their approach to major global challenges, and it certainly wouldn’t help keep America safe.