Joe Biden flabbergasted by Trump White House's pro-Russia policies: "What in the hell are we doing?"

Biden said he was appalled with "this romance with Putin"

By Matthew Rozsa

Staff Writer

Published March 22, 2017 6:55PM (EDT)

FILE - In this March 7, 2016 file photo, Joe Biden, the U.S. Vice President talks to the U.S. military personnel at an Air Base in United Arab Emirates. Biden is set to deliver the commencement speech at the graduation ceremony for the U.S. Military Academy’s class of 2016. The graduation ceremony starts at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 21, 2016, at Michie Stadium on the West Point grounds along the Hudson River 50 miles north of New York City.  (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili, File) (AP)
FILE - In this March 7, 2016 file photo, Joe Biden, the U.S. Vice President talks to the U.S. military personnel at an Air Base in United Arab Emirates. Biden is set to deliver the commencement speech at the graduation ceremony for the U.S. Military Academy’s class of 2016. The graduation ceremony starts at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 21, 2016, at Michie Stadium on the West Point grounds along the Hudson River 50 miles north of New York City. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili, File) (AP)

Former Vice President Joe Biden didn't hold back on his views about President Donald Trump's foreign policy during an appearance at Capitol Hill on Wednesday, as NBC News reported.

"The notion that there is still this romance with Putin," Biden told reporters. "The idea that — and I'm told and I'm not sure this is true, you would know better — I'm told that the secretary of state decided he's gonna go and visit Putin before he goes to the NATO conference? What in the hell are we doing?"

Biden later added, "The president's words matter, they matter a great deal, they have repercussions around the world. And that's not hyperbole. I mean, they literally do."

That same day, after hearing a speech by Gov. Jerry Brown of California, Biden told an audience, "I had planned on saying a lot more but the truth of the matter is Jerry Brown summed it up. As of a matter of fact, he got me so cranked up I was about take my tie off."

Brown had earlier denounced the Republican bill to repeal and replace Obamacare: "This is a dangerous bill. It's written by people who don't know what the hell they're talking about. It is so big, so complicated that I doubt if any member of Congress on the Republican side has even read it," Brown said. "I know the people in Trump Tower have not read it."


By Matthew Rozsa

Matthew Rozsa is a staff writer at Salon. He received a Master's Degree in History from Rutgers-Newark in 2012 and was awarded a science journalism fellowship from the Metcalf Institute in 2022.

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Related Topics ------------------------------------------

Donald Trump Joe Biden Rex Tillerson Vladimir Putin