Skip to content

Vice President Joe Biden tells Baltic leaders: Trump has no idea what’s talking about with NATO

  • Vice President Biden and President of Latvia Raimonds Vejonis in...

    PETRAS MALUKAS/AFP/Getty Images

    Vice President Biden and President of Latvia Raimonds Vejonis in Riga, Latvia.

  • What's NATO?

    Gerald Herbert/AP

    What's NATO?

of

Expand
Author
PUBLISHED: | UPDATED:

Vice President Biden offered some comforting advice to Baltic leaders during a trip to Latvia Tuesday: Don’t listen to that Trump fool.

Biden assured leaders that Donald Trump, who is one election away from the White House, had no idea what he was talking about when he threatened to back out of the NATO pledge to protect American allies.

“I want to make it absolutely clear to all the people in Baltic states: We have pledged our sacred honor…to the NATO treaty,” Biden said.

“The fact that you occasionally hear something from a presidential candidate in the other party, it’s … nothing that should be taken seriously.”

Trump, who likes questioning American allegiances for kicks, dismissed NATO as “obsolete” earlier this summer and said that, if elected, America might not come to the aid of allies if they are attacked by Russia or another country.

But the Republican presidential nominee abruptly and inexplicably flip-flopped last week, telling a rally crowd in Ohio that he suddenly decided NATO is “very, very good” and he will work “very closely” with allies.

What's NATO?
What’s NATO?

NATO ensures a plan for its 28 member countries — including the United States, Latvia, Canada and the United Kingdom — to defend each other if they come under attack from an outside country.

Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton has said through her campaign she is committed to the agreement.

Biden assured during his trip there is “continued overwhelming bipartisan commitment in the United States of America in both political parties to maintain our commitment to NATO.”

NATO leaders last month sent military forces to the Baltic state and Poland to protect them from potential threats from Russia.

With News Wire Services