Over the weekend, Robert Gates, former President Obama’s Secretary of Defense, slammed President Biden’s handling of the war in Ukraine, saying that many of the things the Biden administration is currently doing should’ve been done months ago.
Gates made the comments during an interview on NBC News’ “Meet The Press” with host Chuck Todd.
“A lot of this could’ve been done sooner,” Gates said. “And, you know, they’re talking about it potentially being six months, a year, or more before the Abrams tanks get there. I think the key thing about the Abrams tank decision was that it unlocked Germans being able to provide.”
Gates, who worked closely with then-Vice President Biden during the Obama administration, has previously criticized Biden for his views on foreign policy, saying in his 2014 memoir that Biden is a man of integrity but that he’s “been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.”
Gates doubled down on his comments during a 2021 interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” that was conducted shortly after Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. In the interview, Gates told Anderson Cooper, the correspondent, that Biden has “gotten a lot wrong” on foreign policy.
During the NBC News interview, Gates was also asked about the recent classified document scandals by Biden, former President Trump, and former Vice President Mike Pence. The former Defense Secretary said the problem is that the people handling the classified documents are careless.
“You have a legacy, I think, in Washington of sort of being a guy that sort of fixes sort of dumb problems. Meaning Like stuff — you’re like, “Why isn’t this fixed?” Todd said. “So how would you [fix] this classified document situation that our politics finds itself in, is this something that the bureaucracy should fix? Or is there something more nefarious?”
“Well, I think – I think it’s about people being more responsible,” Gates responded. “I think there’s an element of carelessness. In some cases there may be intent to take the documents. I think maybe we ought to look at the way transitions take place, so that there’s a more orderly process for these classified documents.”