Despite being repeatedly pressed, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby would not label China and Russia "evil regimes," saying President Joe Biden doesn't work that way.
During Wednesday's press briefing, Kirby took questions from reporters, including several that asked why Biden has not called Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin "evil," especially given their track record of human rights abuses.
"It's not a simple question," Kirby said, according to the Washington Examiner. "It's a criticism that you're posing as a question. You'd like to see us put a label on those two countries, and President Biden just doesn't conduct foreign policy that way.
"Go look at the national security strategy," he continued. "Go look at the national defense strategy. Take a look at anything that the president has said over his time as commander-in-chief about Russia and China, and you'll see that we are speaking pretty plainly to the American people and to those countries and those leaders about how we view their behavior, their conduct on the world stage, and our relationships with them. We've been very, very honest about that."
Earlier this month, former Deputy National Security Advisor K.T. McFarland said that "China runs things" when it comes to the Biden White House.
"Joe Biden has a very soft-on-China policy," McFarland said during an appearance on Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "They make good speeches, but they're very soft on China. I mean, now we know why — because the Biden crime family is totally compromised by China. The Penn Biden Center, where President Biden is giving the commencement address, where do they get their money and funding?
"They get it from China. So, of course Joe Biden isn't going to call them to account."
At his recent CNN town hall, former President Donald Trump made a similar comment about Putin when asked about the war in Ukraine.
"If you say he's a war criminal, it's going to be a lot tougher to make a deal to make this thing stop," Trump reportedly said. "If he's going to be a war criminal, people are going to grab him and execute him. He's going to fight a lot harder than he's fighting under the other circumstance."
The U.S. government and its allies, as well as the International Criminal Court have all labeled Putin a "war criminal" over his unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
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