PRESIDENT Joe Biden feared the US was in grave danger of ceding its free world leadership role to China after a tough discussion with Ireland’s prime minister.
“We’re kind of at a place where the rest of the world is beginning to look to China, ” Biden said.
“The most devastating comment made after I was elected — it wasn’t so much about me — but it was by the Irish taoiseach saying that ‘Well, America can’t lead. They can’t even get their arms around Covid,’” the president added during a phone interview with the New York Times columnist David Brooks.
The suggestion that he and the rest of the country would have a lot of work to keep its prestigious role in the wake of President Donald Trump’s four years in office.
It’s unclear when their conversation took place.
But the president did have a virtual face-to-face with (Taoiseach) Prime Minister Micheál Martin back on March 17, which was St. Patrick’s Day.
On that day Biden was in good spirits, even cracking jokes like, “My American friends would say, ‘The American Irish think they’re more Irish than the Irish.’”
In the public portion of the meet, Prime Minister Martin seemed very auspicious about the partnership and America’s recovery.
“Mr. President, the world has rightly taken great heart from the steps you have already taken to bring the US back to center stage on global health, on climate and on human rights.
“We want to work with you to promote our shared values and interests in the world, including at the United Nations Security Council on which we are, as you said, currently serving.”
Marin also expressed his interest to make a personal visit to the US.
“I also hope it will not be long before I can visit the United States again,” he said in the meeting.
There doesn’t appear to be any specific mention of dimming of faith or a turn toward China as a result of the pandemic’s grips on the US.
Martin’s office did not offer an official comment on the matter on Friday, according to the Irish Times.
In the Times interview, Biden reflected on how his Irish heritage is helping him guide the country toward a promising page-turn post-pandemic.
“I think the Irish most often use the world ‘dignity’ of any other group of people,” he said.
“I think it’s because when you’ve been deprived of dignity you put a high, high premium on it.” In the white ethnic hierarchies of midcentury America, “To be Irish was to be second class,” Biden recalls. “The English owned the town.”
Biden’s Irish roots can be traced back to the Blewitts from County Mayo and the Finnegan family from County Louth in Ireland. <<>>
As far as the contrasts of holding the Commander-in-Chief position compared to when he served under his predecessor former President Barack Obama, Biden admitted the stakes of his decisions have critical consequences.
“I think circumstances have changed drastically. We’re at a genuine inflection point in history,” he said.
The president noted that the country is experiencing a “Fourth Industrial Revolution.”
This is all-encompassing from the technology’s ubiquitousness, China’s power flex and more countries vying for global superiority.
