Former Vice President Joe Biden praised the way President Trump handled the nuclear summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, saying ending the meeting early was appropriate given where the talks were headed.
“The president did the right thing by walking away," Biden said at the University of Nebraska Thursday. "But diplomacy matters; preparation matters. The president treats everything like it's a real estate deal."
He also said he hoped the president “learned a very important lesson.”
The summit between the two leaders in Hanoi, Vietnam, fell apart Thursday over the issue of sanctions, President Trump explained at a news conference.
“Basically, they wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety, and we couldn’t do that. They were willing to denuke a large portion of the areas we wanted, but we couldn’t give up all of the sanctions for that,” he said.
Other Democrats also praised the president's decision to walk away.
“President Trump did the right thing by walking away and not cutting a poor deal for the sake of a photo op,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
“For the United States to have agreed to lift all sanctions in the absence of real and complete denuclearization would have been a tremendous mistake,” former national security adviser Susan Rice, said Thursday.
“I'm grateful the president didn't take a dangerous step of giving away our military strength on a weak deal,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) said. “I think it's a good thing that he walked away rather than doing something that was wrong.”
Joe Biden's appearance in Omaha on Thursday came 2 days after he appeared to inch close to a decision to seek the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, telling a Delaware audience that his family has given the green light for him to enter the race. https://t.co/e2dpTalfCX pic.twitter.com/kV8v3A7EZx
— Lincoln Journal Star (@JournalStarNews) March 1, 2019