The White House was forced into damage control mode Friday, with spokespeople trying to “clarify” multiple comments made by President Biden in a live CNN town hall — including a commitment to defend Taiwan from a possible attack by China.
While answering audience questions during Thursday night’s event, Biden was pressed on how the US will match China’s military following reports of hypersonic missile testing by Beijing, as well as whether the US would defend Taiwan from a potential attack.
“China, Russia, and the rest of the world knows we have the most powerful military in the history of the world,” Biden responded. “Don’t worry about whether we’re going to — they’re going to be more powerful. What you do have to worry about is whether or not they’re going to engage in activities that will put them in a position where they may make a serious mistake.”
After stating that he did not want a “Cold War with China,” the president added: “I just want to make China understand that we are not going to step back, we are not going to change any of our views.”
“So, are you saying that the United States would come to Taiwan’s defense if China attacked?” asked moderator Anderson Cooper.
“Yes,” Biden answered. “Yes, we have a commitment to do that.”
Biden’s response appeared to anger the Chinese Communist Party, with a Foreign Ministry spokesperson telling the Chinese state-affiliated newspaper Global Times, “No one should underestimate the strong resolve, determination and capability of the Chinese people to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
“China has no room for compromise.”
The spokesperson also issued a warning to the US to “be cautious in words and deed” and to “refrain from sending any wrong signal to secessionists,” a reference to Taiwan.
Without fully walking back the president’s comments, a White House spokesperson told Fox News on Friday that Biden “was not announcing any change in our policy.”
“The US defense relationship with Taiwan is guided by the Taiwan Relations Act,” the spokesperson said. “We will uphold our commitment under the act, we will continue to support Taiwan’s self-defense, and we will continue to oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo.”
The White House also clarified another statement by the president regarding the use of the National Guard to help relieve the massive supply chain backlog.
Cooper had asked Biden Thursday night if he would consider using the guard to help free the backlog at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in California.
“Yes, absolutely, positively, I would do that,” Biden said. “But in addition to that, what you got to do is you got to get these ships in and unloaded.”
“So, would you consider the National Guard for trucking?” Cooper followed up. “Because there’s a lot of problems with not enough truck drivers right now.”
“Yes,” Biden answered before explaining that “I want to get the ports up and running, and get the railroads and the railheads and the trucks in port ready to move. Because I’ve gotten Walmart and others that say, ‘We’re going to move stuff off of the port, into our warehouses.'”
“So, are you — but you’re actually talking about having National Guardsmen and women driving trucks?” Cooper asked.
“The answer is: Yes, if we can’t move the — increase the number of truckers, which we’re in the process of doing,” the president confirmed.
The White House squashed that possibility Friday, with an official telling Fox News: “We are not actively pursuing the use of the National Guard on a federal level.”
Biden also misfired when quoting statistics about the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines during the event.
“When I first was elected, there were only 2 million people who had COVID shots in the United States of America — had the vaccine,” he said. “Now we got 190 million, because I went out and bought everything I could do — and buy in sight, and it worked.”
In fact, the vaccines had not yet been approved when Biden was elected president in November 2020. By the time he was sworn in on Jan. 20 of this year, nearly 16 million Americans had received one vaccine dose — not 2 million.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration bought up vaccine doses before the shots were even approved. In December, just weeks before Biden was inaugurated, his predecessor purchased 300 million vaccine doses from Moderna and Pfizer.
Biden has a history of downplaying Trump’s role in the COVID-19 vaccine rollout. Earlier this month, he claimed at an event near Chicago that “when I first started the vaccination program, and we got all that vaccine, enough for everyone, we were vaccinating 3 million people a day, we were getting very close before things began to slow down.”
In February, shortly after taking office, Biden claimed that “just over four weeks ago, America had no real plan to vaccinate most of the country,” despite the Trump administration publishing a plan in September 2020 that the Biden White House largely followed.
In the same remarks, Biden alleged that Trump “failed to order enough vaccines, failed to mobilize the effort to administer the shots, failed to set up vaccine centers” — all claims that were dubbed “misleading” by the website FactCheck.org.
With Post wires
