eastern. ♪ announcer: campaign 2020. watch our live coverage of the presidential candidates on the campaign trail and make up your own mind. campaign 2020, your unfiltered view of politics. campaign event in iowa, former vice president joe biden spoke about foreign affairs, including the recent u.s. troop withdrawal in syria. >> hello folks how are you? [cheers and applause] thank you. thank you. thank you. i have to tell you she writes

about she is serious and means a great deal to me at that time she would endorse me. i mean that sincerely. it means a lot. and i have a great, great friend that we keep in touch with one another we lost one of our good friends who passed away but jim is somewhere in here. [applause] and your mayor i know that you know this to be involved in politics for a while but one of the things that is a great honor of repetition of running for president as you go all over the country and people don't realize that you end up in the process making friends

for life. no matter if you win or lose her what happened to become friends for life. so the folks that i just name they are friends she also lost her husband and i lost my son but we cared what was happening to the other person. not just to ourselves. and a lot of people in this room appointed personal privilege were so good to my sons. and human braced him. and mentioning a gentleman's name the good guy i have not seen him in a long time and he

said i would rather have voted for your son but i will vote for you. my dad said when you turn to look at your child and realize they turned out better than you. the way you embraced my son and me when things happened , that means a lot. i see so many familiar faces. and you have cindy her lung cashier estate representative and for her to be here and of all the roles the united states has to fill, there was one that is more consequential than any other. that's to be commander-in-chief of the united states of the commander

of united states military. it is a sacred duty and not something that is done or looked at. so i hope you understand it's important that i make a serious speech that will take about 25 minutes about american foreign policy and why i am so concerned about our security and the climate of the united states military. the power to deploy the most powerful military in the history of the world, never been more confident warriors or a more confident military than what we have. it is not an ego booster or ratings booster.

you take the yacht oath of office to swear responsibility to our troops and their families. the only sacred obligation we have is to protect those we send to war to care for them when they come home and their families when they are gone. they risk their lives so their government can work. another responsibility is that when a commander-in-chief it's for an overwhelming national security purpose. and also drive responsibility to our allies and to our partners in the united states of america will stand behind its word and stand with our allies in times of need. our adversaries know the

united states seeks peace that will not hesitate to defend our national interest or the interest of those we have sworn sacred alliances. donald trump i believe, i'm uncomfortable to say this about a president, but he is a complete failure is commander-in-chief. is most wreck one - - reckless and incompetent commander-in-chief we have ever had. and he fails repeatedly. he doesn't understand. he is just incompetent. i mean it. he has impulses and they are impulses that he has.

and then when the unpredictable happens he's not prepared and it's always somebody else's fault. it never stops at his desk. talks are based on nothing more than a delusional promise by a bloodied dictator. causing huge pain including here in iowa 160 workers laid off here in the quad cities with john deere not to mention the pain it has caused to manufacturing. so virtually no gain at all in the strategy. iran is growing more and more

provocative. starting this nuclear program because donald trump chose to renege on a diplomatic agreement on the agreement that was working with the regime to know what they were doing that ever occurred in modern history. and now turkish forces are invading with our kurdish allies and partners because donald trump tweeted their withdrawal. according to the admiral , former head of naval operations and without any notification to the military.

then to have clarity. to our national security and leadership around the world to the brave women and men serving in uniform. building and maintaining for our allies is a critical element a democratic republic. since world war ii. a small number of america special forces in syria, trump managed in one fell swoop help

to feed isis, create a humanitarian crisis and ethnic and religious communities caught in the crossfire 160,000 newly displaced persons run out of their homes. forcing our troops to retreat. they are in retreat. the united states military is in retreat from turkey. russia and the murderous aside regime is moving in to fill the vacuum. isis, formerly al qaeda has a new lease on life by forcing the kurds to continue to fight

isis and hold those prisoners that they have and try to protect their sons and daughters and families. instead of fighting the remnants of the caliphate isis has set up 10000 isis terrorists. some of whom have already escaped. and with global confidence american leadership in a complete free-for-all. if you say something very self-serving this is something i know a lot about i spend a lot of time in that area i have been engaged because that was my job as chairman of foreign relations committee and doing major national security for president obama.

all the consequences i have mentioned, every single one can be laid at the feet of donald trump. he greenlighted turkey's invasion. now he is left asking turkey to stop it. that the damage is done. you don't get a do over with national security. the decisions have deadly and serious consequences. but yet the dynamics of syria are incredibly complicated. and yes the conflict between turkey and the kurds goes back decades but before trump's tweet a very small number of us forces working together with our kurdish partners was actually keeping northern iraq relatively stable. people were not dying they were keeping the pressure on

what was left of isis. now they been blown apart. imagine how demoralizing that is to our troops as russia pours in mercenaries taking victory laps inside us camps and facilities. in the president trump ordered them to abandon. in turkey attacking the very people they fought alongside of. that's why we need somebody in the oval office that understands the gravity of their decisions. is great unmatched wisdom"my

god what a delusional man. [laughter] [applause] that great unmatched wisdom with that progress across to administrations so as a retired admiral everyone was flabbergasted. in the pentagon and throughout. our military did not sign on to this. this is the only thing that musters enough backbone to criticize him on. [applause]

that sounds outrageous as it is even mitch mcconnell knows he is wrong. [laughter] think about it. lindsey graham is now being attacked by trump again. trump try to justify his decision to abandon the kurds by making the absolute ridiculous uninformed crazy comment they didn't help us in the second world war. [laughter] they didn't help us in normandie. can you believe it?

what a global embarrassment. guess what? a direct threat to the united states of america. [applause] that didn't happen during world war ii. but some of it happened during trump's first term. you think he would remember he bragged about it at the time and said the kurds stood with us with the national security objective of the united states the destruction of isis and the temporary caliphate. we achieve this without sending tens of thousands of troops or spending a quarter trillion dollars as we did with the iraq surge. indeed the obama biden administration worked alongside our partners in syria, the kurds the syrian

democratic forces, but just a few hundred americans stopping tens of thousands of local fighters to take the fight to isis on the ground. the strategy was so successful it turned out the secret plan to defeat isis is to keep doing what we put in place until last week. those brave kurdish and arab forces paid a steep price to defeat isis in the caliphate they lost over 10000 soldiers. 10000. 10000. dead. they made the ultimate

sacrifice and then trump sold them out. all it took was one phone call from the president of turkey who knew very well. so now instead of being a reliable american partner to maintain stability keeping a lid on terrorism the kurds have had to make the only bargain they could make to avoid being wiped out in their women and children to be wiped out. with the onslaught of the turkey military they made a deal with two devils. bashir aside who heads the government of syria. that's the deal.

but now being handed over to those two people, control of northwest syria. the brutal russian and iranian backed regimes how does america stay safe and how does that advance our interest around the world? the answer is quite simple, it doesn't. how does it benefit our adversaries, russia the greatest influence throughout syria, to encourage iran to be more engaged on the western and eastern shore of the mediterranean.

and then to sit back and watch one nato ally to pose a distinction on - - impose sanctions on another to further his goal of fracturing the nato alliance. iran and hezbollah to launch an attack against israel. isis which is clearly seen to be group is now released back into the region. every single strongman as a dictator around the world to abandon our partners under the smallest amount of pressure. what do you think they will do? all we are left with of

american credibility. more chaos, more stability, more threats these are our partners and allies in the region. pointed out along those people who are just placed. who's coming? they will go to europe. that's okay. and with trump's argument or with those forever wars he may have caved to putin and ergogan but also the deployment of thousands of additional troops into the gulf of saudi arabia.

for another crisis with the one with iran but this time the crisis we have to deal with in iran we have to go alone. none of our partners want in on the deal. america, you cause a problem, you deal. you deal with the terrorists coming out of iran. not us. this is not american leadership. this is bending to the will of a strong man. this is a recipe for more forever wars. he is still more than one year in office. god for bid us four years after that?

as erratic as he has become the more he is certain i will beat him like a drum. [applause] really. think about it did you ever think you'd see at times spending $10 million on ads this far out in the other party's primary to pick who the candidate would be? over 70 polls in a row showing me defeating him as i become the object of his attention imagine what damage he could do. either intentionally we cannot

let that happen. the next president will face enormous challenges of american foreign-policy to salvage our reputation to rebuild the confidence what we say what we do we keep our word. the next president will have to address the world as he or she finds it january 2021 whatever the state of disarray trump leaves it. there won't be time to build relationships. we need a leader on day one to pick up the telephone to call the allies to know there is no

question about the next president of the united states. [applause] we will do our treaty obligations and standby democracy and freedom. at first with every single world leader still on the stage i have negotiated with ergogan i know how he operates progressive spent more time with him alone i believe than the president has. in fact, the reason the united states partnered with the kurdish militia in syria in the first place is because turkey dragged its heels on helping us to defeat isis. remember all the people led in across the border to go fight with isis? the turkish border?

i spent hours with my security team going over proposals with ergogan. he wanted us to leverage to deal with our concern with the rest of the world he wants us to declare war to send hundreds of thousands of troops into syria. but we would not do that. the syrian government either the administration or the people want another endless war. in fact unlike the president he gave me the authority to tell ergogan know. but we kept working with turkey. helping them with the syrian refugees flowing out of syria.

designed as much humanitarian aid as we could to alleviate as much suffering as possible for also those fleeing violence to our shores we put in place a successful strategy for the kurds to bring down isis while preventing the turks and the kurds from coming to blows. there will never be a solution in syria that satisfies our best hope for a region of peace within itself. no one once american troops to be forever embroiled in conflict in the meat - - middle east or nation building. there is a big difference between sending tens of thousands of combat troops to the middle east indefinitely which i opposed only using

small operators to support local forces to do the fighting and advancing our common interest. i was surprised last night in the debate one of my colleagues said she withdrew all the troops from the middle east. we can be strong and smart at the same time. and when we do drawdown there's a right way and the wrong way. and what trump has done in syria is disastrously wrong. so this trump created crisis that evolves further into chaos, what should we be doing? what are we doing now? first we should work closely with the nato allies of the united nations to bring more responsible parties to the table. the united states and turkey

are allies even if they don't act like one. so we should be fighting a broader coalition to pull back operations. as well as sees the callous disregard for civilians. the community should make it clear that we investigate in the reports of war crimes to hold accountable those are responsible. the second thing you should do with that immediate result that there is a way there is no negotiation. the united states should be set up to facilitate those talks in the free world

requires us to show up and have some skin in the game. we shouldn't be delegating this to putin. we have an obligation to provide critically humanitarian support with the refugee crisis unfolding before our very eyes. the trump administration sending humanitarian aid to syria but that is only one quarter of the 200 million that had already been sent but he suspended that last year. how will that be distributed? on the front line humanitarian groups all through the region, how will they do this as they pull the staff out of the areas we are fighting? we should be willing to carry out the air lifts and fire on - - food and water and to

remain laser focused to prevent any resurgence of isis. into prison vent villages from turkish attack it's easy to imagine isis re- growing and filling the void. we cannot let that happen for our own safety sake. no matter how much donald trump tweets it's easy for europeans to escape isis fighters or for us to go back. that didn't work before. that's not how it worked the first time and certainly not now if we have to fight isis again. during our administration we build a coalition to take on isis with 81 partners that was part of my responsibility to put that together.

eighty other nations to participate with us to curtail their expansion with the caliphate and those from all around the world, because they trusted the word of the united states of america under the obama biden administration. ask yourself if there's anything trump has done, any international treaty, any all ally, after leaving partners to be slaughtered with no discernible strategy, taking the most outrageous thugs in the world from kim jung-un to putin, who will stand with us?

how many more brave sons and daughters do we have to send to fight alone to protect us? and that brings me to my final point today. as president trump is doing what he's doing in syria it is much bigger than syria it's more insidious than the betrayal of our partners and more dangerous than taking the boot off the neck of isis. he is demolishing the moral authority of the united states of america. [applause]

the confidence is so extreme in the abuse of power is so rampant that he is torching america's influence and the ability to get things done around the world. climate change. 85 percent will come back to cooperate with us when we put together the paris climate accord. mass migration. from venezuela and other places. unfair trade practices. nuclear proliferation. the ascendancy of china and the resurgence of russia. how will we meet these challenges we face if the united states is ever reduced in the eyes of the world to be an unreliable partner? who was going to stand with

us? not just a series of handshakes and photo opportunities. it is building relationships. constantly building and maintaining. working to identify the common interests or of managing points of conflict that is a team of professionals to empower and a coherent national security process for everyone on the same page executed. almost three years as president trump still doesn't understand any of this. and never will. [applause] because the only thing he cares about is donald trump.

not our allies, not her neighbors, not our diplomats are values or leadership. not our standing in the world. not the incredible human suffering that is being caused. not even with isis that is the most dangerous terrorist group in modern history. how many think they will regenerate once again to gain strength and threaten the united states of america? there is so much at stake in this election. it should matter to every single american this is not an abstract speech before the council of foreign relations in new york city. or a group of foreign policy experts. this is every day americans and every single family.

what does america stand for? who do we want to be? united states works with our partners of democracies for the sake of our own national security and her own prosperity. no country more than ours can go alone against the challenges of respecting her borders that cannot be contained by laws. the investment we have made have come back tenfold. and then to attack those global challenges and then to fight alongside us. i met a gentleman at the airport with vietnam veterans.

at the time is that with me just before i came over here talking about going against being the world's policeman. america first means america alone. how do we deal with a crisis that will affect us in every single american in iowa and throughout the country? all the places affect our ability to survive in the fair trade policy. how do we do that? make no mistake. nations will make accommodations for those who are in the picture and make

their own deals to be a part of an alliance. what do they know that donald trump's vision everything that americans have fought for and sacrificed, i believe we are so much better than donald trump thinks we are. that we can and must be the nation the world looks to mobilizes others for common good as a beacon of liberty. with those oppressed options in a bulwark of democracy. a champion of human rights. a leader of the free world. all of this is on the ballot

this november. the right to choose if we want to retake our place in the world to keep the united states safe and secure because we built on our alliances and choose a president who will rebuild our credibility to restore the value of america's word. i promise you if we do not others will make accommodations. imagine a world without nato or the european alliance. imagine a world without alliances in the pacific. how long will it take for some of these nations to no longer take our word before they decide to go nuclear? before they decide before they

decide they have to make an accommodation with putin or china? folks, this policy is a disaster this president is a disaster. we can change that. it is totally within our power. have to be sure what we mean and explain what we do and make no apologies so the world of the american public can look at whoever we pick and say i believe that person and i believe one day number one that person is ready to command the world stage, does not mean on-the-job training and is known by everybody from putin to our allies to be what he says what they are. and not to do anything

thoroughly reckless but we cannot. and forever change the nation of who we are. that's my intention. thank you god bless you all and may god protect our troops. [cheers and applause] ♪

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announcer: c-span's campaign 2020 coverage continues tonight at eight a clock p.m. on c-span. president trump holds a keep america great rally in dallas. comeiday at six clock p.m. alive on c-span, elizabeth warren -- 6:00 p.m., live on

c-span, elizabeth warren holds a town hall. watch on c-span, anytime on c-span.org, and listen wherever you are using the free c-span radio app. at a recent senate foreign relations hearing, republican senator lindsey graham questions the decision to withdraw u.s. troops from syria. here's a portion of the hearing, would you can watch in its entirety online at c-span.org by searching the word iran. >> is assad a friend of the united states? >> no. >> is he aligned with iran?

has bella came to his aid when no one else -- has bella -- hezbollah came to his aid when no one else would. do you agree with that? you are a good man. you are a good choice for this, so my questions are really not about you and your policies. it is about this president's policies. this is the most screwed up decision i've seen since i've been in congress. when the president said today the invasion of turkey -- turkey's invasion of syria is really of no consequent to

for the united states strategically brilliant. i don't see anything brilliant about this. do you believe the kurds are safer today than before turkey's invasion? toi am the special presented for iran. moving intoe iran take the oil fields in syria if we withdraw forces? >> i have not seen any intelligence on that. >> iran is messing at the

borders. if we withdraw all of our forces and abandon the oil fields, iran would seize the oil fields and it would undercut the maximum pressure campaign and our friends and israel will be in a world of hurt. do you agree if iran gets stronger that is the detriment? >> yes. ouro you agree it is in national security interest that we have a partnership in syria that contained iran's ambitions. >> that is the strategy to deny them the revenue. back,raham: if isis comes it will be very difficult to contain -- the kurds will have a hard time fighting turkey and taking care of the isis prisoners. that is a bad spot for the kurds to be in. do you agree? forhat is a question

jeffrey. sen. graham: who would be the biggest winner, would it the uranian's. iran as winner? sen. graham: do you believe that they seize the oil fields they will be stronger and have more resources, not less? >> i don't know the odds of them taking it. -- we have had -- tried to sen. graham: if they seize the oil fields in iran, would it their regime in terms that are capability?

>> if they are able to get more revenue. it's not hard question. the answer is yes. my view is the biggest winner by this decision by the president to abandon syria would be iran, isis, and the biggest loser will be the kurdish allies. see turkey's actions going into syria and undercutting policies toward iran? >> our troops are there to ensure the defeat of isis. --. graham: isis mission.

sen. graham: we are not there in large enough numbers. it is kurdish and arab fighters that we rely upon. you agree with that? >> that is a question for the person -- sen. graham: i asked you a very simple question. does president erdogan's invasion of syria putting kurdish allies at risk, driving president trump out of syria in terms of a military presence. you think over time that will be the benefit of iran? >> i believe the strategy we have put in place will accomplish our objectives. sen. graham: does your strategy include allowing president want to slaughter the kurds? >> that is not part of the strategy. sen. graham: does your strategy mean leaving the oil fields in syria for the taking of iran?

>> i've not heard of a proposal to enable iran for syria. >> president trump responded to the criticism to pull troops out of syria when he was asked about at a white house event. lindsey graham just set of your remarks in the oval office that if you keep talking like that "this will be a disaster, worse than obama's decision to leave iraq o." want to get out of the middle east. lyndsay should focus on judiciary like the democrats and the do-nothing democrats as call them because they are doing nothing and getting none done. they are not getting usmca done between the canada, the united states, and mexico. lindsay should focus on judiciary and find out about happens with comey what happened

struck,abe, lisa president obama, brennan that is what he ought to focus on. that is what the people of south carolina want him to focus on. they do not want us to get into a war with turkey, a nato member or with syria, let them fight their own wars. they have been fighting their own wars. the people of south carolina want to see troops come home. i won an election based on that and that is the way it is, whether it is good or bad. if you look at this country, i'd be willing to bet anything that is what the country wants. on wednesday the house approved a resolution the trump administration to withdraw troops from syria. 60 republicans voted against the measure and representatives