US President Joe Biden has used a fundraiser at the home of James Murdoch to warn that the world was facing its biggest nuclear threat since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis as Vladimir Putin escalates his aggression against Ukraine.
Speaking at a Democratic fundraiser in New York, Biden said his Russian counterpart was “not joking” when he suggested last month that he could unleash nuclear warfare in a bid to defend what Russia views as its territory.
Biden looks at the IBM System One quantum computer with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul during a tour of an IBM facility in Poughkeepsie, NYCredit:AP
“We’ve got a guy I know fairly well,” the president said of Putin, warning that the world was facing “the prospect of Armageddon.”
“He’s not joking when he talks about the potential use of tactical nuclear weapons or biological or chemical weapons because his military is, you might say, significantly underperforming.”
“(For the) first time since the Cuban missile crisis, we have the threat of a nuclear weapon if in fact, things continue down the path they are going.”
Biden’s comments come two weeks after Putin declared a partial military mobilisation to call up as many as 300,000 reservists and hinted he was prepared to deploy “all the means at our disposal” in his battle against Ukraine.
The move sparked angry protests in Russia, a rush of would-be conscripts trying to flee the country, and widespread condemnation from world leaders, many of whom were in Manhattan attending the UN General Assembly at the time.
UK’s new Prime Minister Liz Truss accused Putin of “making yet more bogus claims and sabre-rattling threats.” French President Emmanuel Macron called on the international community to “put maximum pressure” on Russia. And Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong described Putin’s comments as “unthinkable” and “irresponsible”.
Biden’s condemnation was also swift and severe, but his comments on Thursday night (Friday Australian time) are arguably the starkest yet from his administration.
“We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban missile crisis,” he said, referencing the standoff with the Soviet Union in 1962.
“We are trying to figure out what is Putin’s off ramp? Where does he find a way out?”
Biden was speaking at the home of James Murdoch, the son of Australian publishing tycoon Rupert Murdoch, as part of a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee event ahead of November’s midterm elections.
James Murdoch resigned from the board of News Corp in 2020, citing disagreements over editorial content at the company founded by his father. He and his wife, Kathryn, a climate change activist, were major donors to Biden’s presidential campaign that year against then US president Donald Trump.
Lachlan, Rupert and James Murdoch.Credit:Jamie Brown
With five weeks until the midterms, the New York fundraiser was the latest in a series of donor-wooing events the president has attended around the country in a bid to raise money for the November 8 poll, which will decide who controls the US Congress.
The Senate battle will be particularly critical because the 100-member chamber is currently evenly split, with the Democrats only holding the majority by virtue of Vice President Kamala Harris’s tie-breaking vote.
Earlier in the day – after attending a jobs-spruiking event at IBM in New York – the president also made another major announcement: that he would pardon all prior federal offences of simple marijuana possession.
The move, which senior White House officials said could affect “thousands” of Americans charged with that crime, was the fulfilment of an election pledge and is seen as the first step towards the possible decriminalisation of marijuana.
This is an issue that is central to some key midterm races. Among them is the critical Senate contest in the ultimate swing state of Pennsylvania, between progressive Democrat John Fetterman, who has been pushing for decriminalisation, and Trump-backed candidate Mehmet Oz.
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