President Donald Trump on Tuesday defiantly mocked the furor over his swipe at former Vice President Joe Biden during a high-profile trip overseas to Japan for the Memorial Day weekend.
The president tweeted after his return to the White House:
"I was actually sticking up for Sleepy Joe Biden while on foreign soil. Kim Jong Un called him a 'low IQ idiot,' and many other things, whereas I related the quote of Chairman Kim as a much softer 'low IQ individual.' Who could possibly be upset with that?"
The dig might have been a response to Biden's presidential campaign — and tweets even from his supporters, like Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y. — that blasted Trump for agreeing with North Korea leader Kim Jong Un's withering criticism of the former VP, The Hill reported.
Biden campaign official Kate Bedingfield called Trump's attacks "beneath the dignity of the office" and said "to be on foreign soil, on Memorial Day, and to side repeatedly with a murderous dictator against a fellow American and former vice president speaks for itself," The Hill reported.
Trump criticism of Biden drew flak specifically because they violated the norm that domestic politics stop at the water's edge; one such critic was Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., who tweeted "it's Memorial Day Weekend and you're taking a shot at Biden while praising a dictator. This is just plain wrong."
It was not just at a news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that Trump jabbed Biden as "a low-IQ individual," he also fired off a tweet Saturday repeating the insult.
"North Korea fired off some small weapons, which disturbed some of my people, and others, but not me," Trump tweeted. "I have confidence that Chairman Kim will keep his promise to me, & also smiled when he called Swampman Joe Biden a low IQ individual, & worse. Perhaps that's sending me a signal?"
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.