As President Joe Biden embarks on a three-country trip to meet with world leaders, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee said the president doesn’t have what it takes to represent America on the world stage.
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), anticipated to lead the committee if his party takes control of the House in the midterm, told Fox News Digital that Biden doesn’t project the strength that he should.
“All he projects is weakness, and that invites aggression,” McCaul said. “And that’s why we’re in so much trouble.”
As an example, he pointed to Biden’s trip to Saudi Arabia over the summer, where the president unsuccessfully sought relief on oil prices from a country he had declared a “pariah” over its human rights abuses.
Biden is scheduled to leave Thursday for a trip that will take him first to Egypt for a UN climate summit, then to Cambodia to meet with southeast Asian leaders, then finally to Bali, Indonesia, where he’s set to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday at the annual “Group of 20” summit, ABC News reported.
Asked on Wednesday whether he would tell the Chinese leader “personally that you are committed to defending Taiwan,” Biden said, “I’m going to have that conversation with him.”
But in the eyes of the Republican from Texas, that will likely fall on deaf ears coming from Biden.
“That explains why we have so many hotspots. And it’s dangerous, quite frankly,” McCaul said, suggesting that Biden’s behavior invited Russia’s Ukraine invasion and China’s recent escalations against Taiwan.
“It’s frightening,” he added. “I would hope he’s projecting deterrence to aggression and strength. But this administration doesn’t seem capable of doing that.”
At their meeting in Bali, Biden and Xi are also set to “discuss efforts to maintain and deepen lines of communication” and “responsibly manage competition,” as well as “a range of regional and global issues,” according to White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
