Friday 27 May 2022 04:46 PM Biden tears into Putin and Xi Jinping, pays tribute to McCain in Navy Academy ... trends now
President Joe Biden joked to Navy midship on Friday that he pursued football and politics over a military career as he warned them the next 10 years will be a 'decisive decade' in American history.
'Things are changing so rapidly that the next 10 years will be the decisive decade of this century. Because they're going to shape what the world looks like, and the values that will guide it - not just for the immediate future but for generations to come,' Biden said in his commencement address to the Naval Academy.
Biden, in his remarks, tore into Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jingping. He also paid tribute to the late Senator John McCain, one of the academy's most famous graduates.
He laid out for the class of 2022 the world they are going into as officers in the United States military.
He slammed Putin for the 'brutal, brutal war in Ukraine.'
Biden charged the Russian president with trying to wipe out Ukraine's culture.
'Not only is he trying to take over Ukraine, he's really trying to wipe out the culture and identity of the Ukrainian people - attacking schools, nurseries, hospitals, museums, with no other purpose,' he said.
He called it a 'direct assault on a fundamental tenets of rule based international order.'
President Joe Biden joked to Navy midship that he pursued football and politics over a military career as he warned them the next 10 years will be a 'decisive decade' in American history
Midshipmen take their oath at the U.S. Naval Academy graduation and commissioning ceremony in Annapolis
President Joe Biden hands out diplomas to graduates
President Biden shakes hands with a graduating Marine
Biden also referenced Chinese aggression, which his administration is trying to counteract. He repeated his call for a 'free and independent' Indo-Pacific region.
'We're living through a global struggle between autocracies and democracies,' he said, specifically calling out the president of China.
He said of Xi: 'When he called me to congratulate me on election night, he said to me was he said many times before. He said democracies cannot be sustained in the 21st century. Autocracies will run the world – why? Things are changing so rapidly. Democracies require consensus and it takes time. And you don't have the time. He's wrong.'
But, Biden warned graduates, 'that's what you're graduating into.'
He said in their careers they will face a number of responsbilities. Then he pointed out the military officer carrying the 'football' - the country's nuclear codes - as an example. A military official takes the 'football' everywhere the president goes.
And he paid tribute
