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Biden Slams Trump's Anti-Muslim Stands, Embrace Of Putin


U.S. Vice President Joe Biden slammed recent anti-Muslim and pro-Russia stands taken by GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump.
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden slammed recent anti-Muslim and pro-Russia stands taken by GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden warned that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's anti-Muslim policies could backfire and hurt the United States.

"Some of the rhetoric I'm hearing sounds designed to radicalize all 1.4 billion" Muslims around the world, Biden said on June 20 at the Center for New American Security, a Washington think tank.

On June 19, Trump went beyond his previous calls for temporarily banning Muslim immigration by suggesting the United States should consider profiling Muslims already in the country.

"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 said.

Biden also questioned Trump's willingness to engage Russian President Vladimir Putin "at a time of renewed Russian aggression," which he said "could call into question America's long-standing commitment to Europe."

And he said Trump's plan to build a wall on the Mexican border would only foment hatred in Latin America.

"If we build walls and disrespect our closest neighbors, we will quickly see...a return of anti-Americanism and a corrosive rift throughout our hemisphere," he said.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AP

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