Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday blasted President Joe Biden’s “Armageddon comment” regarding the nuclear risk posed by Russia as "reckless", saying it demonstrates "maybe one of the greatest foreign policy failures of the last decades."
Biden said at a Democratic Party fundraising event in New York last week that the world risks nuclear "Armageddon" for the first time since the Cold War.
Biden stated that Russian President Vladimir Putin is "not joking" when he threatens to use nuclear weapons to pursue his invasion of Ukraine.
"We've got a guy I know fairly well," he continued, before adding, that Putin is "not joking when he talks about potential use of tactical nuclear weapons or biological or chemical weapons, because his military is, you might say, significantly underperforming."
Responding on Sunday to Biden’s comment in an interview with Fox News, Pompeo said, "Oh my goodness. First of all those comments were reckless. I think that even more importantly, they demonstrate maybe one of the greatest foreign policy failures of the last decades, which was the failure to deter Vladimir Putin in the same way that the Trump administration did for four years."
"When you hear the president talking about Armageddon at a random — as a random thought just musing at a fundraiser that is a terrible risk to the American people if he truly believes that he ought to be out talking to us in a serious way," Pompeo added.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Friday said the United States sees no reason to change its nuclear posture and does not have indications that Russia is preparing to imminently use nuclear weapons.
"He was reinforcing what we have been saying, which is how seriously we take these threats about nuclear weapons," Jean-Pierre told reporters on Air Force One when asked about Biden's comments.
"We have not seen any reason to adjust our own strategic nuclear posture, nor do we have indications that Russia is preparing to imminently use nuclear weapons," she added.
Putin issued a thinly veiled nuclear threat in a recent speech in which Putin also announced his country's first wartime military mobilization since World War Two.
Biden, in his speech at the United Nations General Assembly, then accused Putin of making "overt nuclear threats against Europe" in reckless disregard for nuclear nonproliferation responsibilities.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said last week that Washington takes Putin's nuclear threats seriously but does not presently see indications of the use of nuclear weapons by Russia.
"There is a risk, given all the loose talk and nuclear saber rattling by Putin, that he would consider this and we’ve been equally clear about what the consequences would be," Sullivan told reporters, but added, "We do not presently see indications about the imminent use of nuclear weapons."
Asked if the US would actively enter the war if Putin used nukes on Ukraine, Sullivan replied, "So, I have said before that we have had the opportunity to communicate directly to Russia a range of consequences...and the kinds of actions the United States would take."
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Sukkot in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)
