Last month, President Joe Biden said during an appearance on “60 Minutes” that U.S. troops would defend Taiwan if it was invaded by China. Those comments were walked back shortly after the interview by a White House official who claimed that the current policy of “strategic ambiguity” hasn’t changed.
During an interview on the “Rick and Bubba” radio show Thursday, U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville criticized the president for not showing true leadership when it comes to the issue of defending Taiwan.
“I hope the guy has some leadership skills,” Tuberville said about Biden, “’cause I want to tell you this, being on the Armed Services Committee, we live in the most dangerous time than all three of our lifetimes because of what’s going on in Russia and what’s going on in China and really what’s going on here.”
The senator believes the administration is unable to handle the current crisis the country is facing on the world stage.
“We can’t even fill our quotas for recruiting for our military for our national defense,” he said. “So we need a leader that can make good decisions because it’s coming. You don’t think China’s over there not seeing what’s going on here, and China wants Taiwan back.”
Tuberville said Biden has been unclear about his strategy to help Taiwan.
“It just scares me to death that when he goes in there,” Tuberville said. “You keep hearing Biden say ‘we’re not going to let that happen,’ then his aides come around and say ‘don’t listen to what he says, we’re going to stick by the other policy.’ I mean there’s just no consistency and there’s nobody in charge that you can just listen to and say ‘ok that’s what he said and that’s the way it’s going to be.’ It just scares the heck out of me.”
He also warned that China is working hard to surpass the United States when it comes to military strength in the region.
“China, they’re out sprinting us right now in everything that needs to be done to fight some kind of war in the Indo-Pacific,” he said. “We don’t need a war…but we need to play defense up front…I hope this doesn’t happen, but then again you’ve got to show some strength and leadership up front.”
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee
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