Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Wednesday released a video assailing U.S. President Donald Trump as "a president the world is laughing at" in the wake of a viral hot mic clip of world leaders appearing to joke about Trump's behavior at a NATO gathering.
The video begins with a compilation of news clips with anchors discussing Trump's standing in the world before showing the NATO video, along with Biden's voice from a speech saying "The world sees Trump for what he is, insincere, ill-informed, corrupt, dangerously incompetent and incapable, in my view, of world leadership."
A graphic comes up that reads "We need a leader the world respects."
The video highlights Biden's strategy of painting Trump as unfit to lead on the world stage. Part of Biden's pitch to voters is that he is the best equipped to restore relationships with US allies as a former vice president and chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The former vice president cited the NATO video while speaking at an event in Ames, Iowa, earlier Wednesday to make the case "people are worried around the world" with Trump in office.
"You saw what's recently happened, you heard the reports, I didn't see them, I just saw the reports today, where our NATO allies caught off guard making fun of the President of the United States of America," Biden said. "When is that, did you ever think you'd see that happen? Ever? And it matters to us. It matters to our security. But it gets back to basic fundamental values. And where are those values rooted?"
The comments echo Biden's remarks to CNN's Don Lemon last month faulting Trump for "shredding our alliances."
"Vladimir Putin knows I know him, and he knows me. And the fact is that this is what is needed on day one," Biden said. "We're in trouble. We're in trouble. This President is shredding our alliances. This President is yielding to Putin in ways that are obsequious."
Wednesday's video was released 30 minutes after Trump landed back on American soil, keeping in line with Biden's often cited principle of not criticizing a president while they're abroad.
"I never say anything negative about a president while he -- a particular foreign policy issue -- while that president is abroad," Biden said in Ames.
