Biden asserts Trump could trigger surge in anti-Americanism

Warning of a potential surge in anti-Americanism, Vice President Joe Biden is tearing into Donald Trump’s views on foreign policy and urging the country not to follow the presumptive Republican nominee down a path of isolationism and bigotry.

Biden, in a speech Monday to the Center for New American Security, plans to deliver a point-by-point rebuttal of Trump’s ideas on immigration, terrorism and relations with Russia. In excerpts of his speech released in advance by the White House, Biden cautions against policies he says would make the US and its neighborhood poorer, less democratic and less secure.

“Wielding the politics of fear and intolerance, like proposals to ban Muslims from entering the United States or slandering entire religious communities as complicit in terrorism, calls into question America’s status as the greatest democracy in the history of the world,” Biden plans to say.

Biden’s speech to the Washington think tank is to form his most concerted and lengthy rebuke to date of Trump, and comes as Biden and US President Barack Obama are increasingly inserting themselves into the election in an attempt to stop Trump. Earlier this month both Biden and Obama endorsed Hillary Clinton, and both Democrats are expected to start campaigning aggressively for her in the coming days.

— AP