Donald Trump slams 'Sleepy Joe Biden' for being 'naive' in insisting China isn't a competitive threat to the U.S.
- President Trump attacked former Vice President Joe Biden for downplaying the threat China poses to the U.S.
- Campaigning in Iowa City on Wednesday former Vice President Joe Biden insisted China's economy is not a threat to the United States
- Trump said the claim from the Democratic candidate was 'naive'
- Biden claimed the Chinese are too busy straitening out regional issues and internal corruption to pose a threat to the United States' global hegemony
- Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, who correctly predicted that Russia would become a major challenger to the U.S., warned Biden, 'This will not age well'
- Democratic competitor Bernie Sanders told Biden that he's 'wrong' in a tweet that accused China of siphoning off 3 million jobs from American workers
President Donald Trump attacked former Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday for downplaying the competitive threat China poses to the U.S.
'For somebody to be so naive, and say China's not a problem – if Biden actually said that, that's a very dumb statement,' Trump told Fox News in an interview.
The Democratic presidential candidate insisted while campaigning in Iowa City on Wednesday that the world's No. 2 economy isn't a threat to the U.S.
'China is going to eat our lunch? Come on, man,' Biden said at an event on a swing through the first caucus state. 'I mean, you know, they're not bad folks, folks. But guess what? They're not a — they're not competition for us.'
Biden, who came out of retirement to compete for the Democratic nomination with 20 other candidates – so far – said the Chinese are too busy straightening out regional issues and internal corruption to pose a threat to the United States' global hegemony.
President Donald Trump said former Vice President Joe Biden is 'naive' in claiming China isn't a competitive threat to the U.S.
Biden made the comments while campaigning in Iowa City on Wednesday. He insisted that the world's No. 2 economy is too busy straightening out regional issues and internal corruption to pose a threat
The remarks prompted Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, who correctly predicted that Russia would become a major challenger to the U.S., to warn Biden, 'This will not age well.'
Democratic competitor Bernie Sanders told Biden that he's 'wrong' in a tweet that accused China of siphoning off 3 million jobs from American workers.
Trump spent a large chuck of Wednesday morning taking aim at Biden's endorsement from a firefighters association.
Biden addressed concerns about China's rising influence during a Wednesday campaign rally in a predominately rural state that's heavily affected by the trade war between Washington and Beijing.
Chinese State media placed ads in an influential Iowa newspaper last fall in an attempt to turn public opinion against President Donald Trump's tariffs on Beijing's goods. He subsequently accused the communist nation of election meddling at a United Nation's Security Council meeting.
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His ire diluted and Trump's administration's claimed this week that a trade deal with China that will minimize a massive trade deficit between the world's largest standalone economies is near completion.
Trump has accused the foreign nation of taking advantage of the U.S. and its leaders, like Biden's former boss and two-term President Barack Obama.
In Iowa City, Biden attempted to capitalize on his experience in the White House by reminding a crowd that he served as vice president for eight years and oversaw the Senate Foreign Relations Committee before that.
He repeated a line he's been using for many years about his experience at the forefront of America's foreign affairs.
'I've met virtually every major world leader...over the last 30 years, and that's not hyperbole, virtually every one,' he said.
Biden claimed that he does not 'know a single solitary one who would not change places with the problems the United States has' versus the problems they have.
The remarks prompted Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, who correctly predicted that Russia would become a major challenger to the U.S., to warn Biden, 'This will not age well'
'China is going to eat our lunch? Come on, man. They can't even figure out how to deal with, the fact that they have this great division between the China Sea and the mountains in the East, I mean in the West,' he said.
He added, 'They can't figure out how they're going to deal with the corruption that exists within the system.
The ex-senator then claimed that China is 'not competition for us' in the off-the-cuff remarks that came as he wandered back and forth across the stage.
Biden was referring to the conflict in the South China Sea and pervasive corruption inside the communist country's government.
The remark was immediately swatted down by Sanders, who is a front-runner in the race for the Democratic nomination for president.
'Since the China trade deal I voted against, America has lost over 3 million manufacturing jobs. It's wrong to pretend that China isn't one of our major economic competitors,' he tweeted. 'When we are in the White House we will win that competition by fixing our trade policies.'
