As President Joe Biden stares down an expected rematch with Donald Trump in this November’s presidential election, the incumbent is sounding the alarm on the continued front-runner for Republicans’ nomination.
In recent comments at a campaign event, Biden derided recent rhetoric from Trump comparing his ostensible troubles here in the United States to the circumstances faced by Alexei Navalny, a Russian opposition leader who recently died in detention inside Russia. Biden suggested he’d have faced institutionalization if he’d spoken similarly.
“Nancy and I have worked with Republicans for a long time,” Biden told the crowd. “A lot of Republicans, I’ve disagreed with, but they’ve been decent women and men. They’ve had a — at least they’d had a — an American moral center with what they were about. But there doesn’t — that seems to be lost. You listen to some of the things this fellow has been saying, like he’s comparing himself to Navalny and saying that he — because our country has become a Communist country because it’s persecuting him, just like Navalny was persecuted. I don’t know where the hell this comes from. If I stood here 10, 15 years ago and said any of this, you’d all think I should be committed.”
Trump made the comparison in comments regarding Navalny’s death posted to his personal account on Truth Social, the knock-off social media site rolled out by his own team following mainstream sites blocking the ex-president’s usage. Trump didn’t even reference by name Russian leader Vladimir Putin, under whose regime Navalny was detained prior to his death. Trump characterized the opposition leader’s fate as sudden, but Navalny’s treatment had driven serious concern for years. He was even poisoned at an earlier juncture.
Trump and his circles also continue facing questions about financial ties to Saudi Arabia. A fund led by the country’s political leadership has evidently produced large sums reaching Trump businesses via the latter hosting events for LIV Golf, a sports league on the newer side.
