Former Vice President Mike Pence hit at President Biden for prioritizing a “family vacation” to Ireland over the numerous crises facing America. On “Fox & Friends” Friday, Pence called on the president to “step forward” and offer assurances to the public after the recent intelligence leak.
MIKE PENCE: With everything this country is dealing with, with a crisis at our border, with inflation at a 40-year high. The American people struggling. China’s provocations, Russia on the move in Eastern Europe. I just don’t get what appears to be a family vacation in Ireland taking precedence, and the president not doing a full-blown press conference, not responding to this and making the statement that it didn’t appear to be contemporaneous.
I would tell you some of this information, if it turns out to be legitimate about Chinese hypersonic weapons at a time that China continues to menace against Taiwan, the information about air defenses in Ukraine, I just don’t understand how that’s not contemporaneous, not timely. I think the president needs to step forward. He needs to assure the American people that every step is being taken to guard our nation.
RUSSIAN OFFICIAL SUGGESTS LEAKED US DOCUMENTS MAY BE ATTEMPT TO ‘MISLEAD THE ENEMY’
Speaking from Ireland on Thursday, shortly before then suspected leaker was apprehended, Biden downplayed the significance of the information.
“I can’t right now [give an update]. There is a full-blown investigation going on with the intelligence community and Justice Department and they are getting close,” said Biden.
“I’m concerned that it happened but there is nothing contemporaneous that I’m aware of that is of great consequence,” he added.
The Pentagon has come under harsh criticism after the arrest of 21-year-old Air National Guardsman Jack Douglas Teixeira. Critics have questioned why the man had access to classified intelligence.
“The idea that a 21-year-old kid can expose sources and methods of how we spy, how we have penetrated the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, because apparently we’ve exposed the fact we know they have a new hypersonic missile that can reach the United States, that they exposed our penetration of the Russian Defense Ministry, that could affect the war in Ukraine. I mean, the incompetence is stunning,” said Marc Thiessen, the former chief speechwriter for President George W. Bush, on “The Story” Thursday.
