Pence calls Biden calling Xi dictator a ‘statement of fact’

Former Vice President Mike Pence said Sunday that President Biden’s calling Chinese President Xi Jinping a dictator was a “statement of fact.”

CBS’ Margaret Brennan asked Pence if he agreed with Biden portraying Xi as a dictator, to which the GOP presidential candidate replied, “I think that’s a fact.” Pence’s remarks stand in stark contrast to former President Trump, who described Xi as “upmarket” and a “brilliant man” in an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson earlier this year.

Pence said “there is no more effective way to send a deafening message to communist China to check its military ambitions in the Asia-Pacific” than to provide Ukraine with what it needs to put end to the invasion of the country by Russia.

“I guarantee you that President Xi is watching very carefully what is happening in Ukraine,” Pence said. “We’re giving the Ukrainians, much faster than Joe Biden is doing right now, we’re giving them what they need to win this fight to repel the Russian invasion”

He also dodged a question asking whether he would commit to sending troops to Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion, adding that there is ‘no benefit in saying what you will or will not do’. .

“The United States of America must continue to provide Taiwan with the military means to defend itself,” he added. “What we want is a policy of deterrence.”