Unlike ex-President Donald Trump and the former commander-in-chief’s political allies, President Joe Biden intends to hold Russian President Vladimir Putin accountable for his affronts against the United States. In recent days, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), which is a federal government entity, released a report outlining the conclusion that Putin sought to meddle in the 2020 U.S. presidential election through means including influencing Trump associates. During an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, Biden said that Putin will “pay a price.”
The ODNI report did not name Trump associates who were the targets of the Russian influence operation, but longtime Trump ally Rudy Giuliani is already known to have established a personal relationship with Ukrainian lawmaker Andrii Derkach, who was sanctioned and characterized as a years-long Russian intelligence operative by the Treasury Department last year. Initially, Giuliani connected with Derkach in an effort to procure damaging information about the Bidens. After Derkach’s sanctions, Giuliani attempted to distance himself from him, but the damage was done.
Biden commented as follows:
‘[Putin] will pay a price. We had a long talk, he and I; I know him relatively well. And the conversation started off, I said — “I know you and you know me. If I establish this occurred, then be prepared.”.. Look, most important thing dealing with foreign leaders, in my experience, and I’ve dealt with an awful lot of them over my career, is just know the other guy.’
Following his inauguration, Biden first spoke with Putin over the phone in late January and brought up issues including the SolarWinds-tied cyberattack against U.S. government interests. As part of that operation, suspected Russian agents infiltrated U.S. government systems. In the aftermath of the public revelation of the operation, top officials in the Trump administration including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Attorney General Bill Barr noted that Russia appeared to be behind the attack, but — true to form — Trump downplayed the allegations of Russian involvement and suggested that some other interest could have done it.
On a similar note, Trump dismissed reports of Russian bounties for American soldiers in Afghanistan, as if he’s pathologically unwilling to approach pretty much any issue without imagining some kind of secret “fake news” conspiracy.
Speaking with Stephanopoulos, Biden added as follows:
‘The price [Putin’s] going to pay, well, you’ll see shortly… There are places where it’s in our mutual interest to work together. That’s why I renewed the START agreement with him. That occurred while he’s doing this, but that’s overwhelmingly in the interest of humanity that we diminish the prospect of a nuclear exchange.’
Watch Biden’s comments below:
