Biden calls the Republican Party ‘vastly diminished in numbers’ and its leadership ‘fractured’

During a press conference at the conclusion on the NATO summit in Brussels on Monday, President Biden commented on party politics calling the Republican Party “vastly diminished in numbers,” its leadership “fractured” and that the “Trump wing of the party is the bulk of the party but it makes up a significant minority of the American people.”

Video Transcript

- Here at this meeting and earlier at the G7, you've said several times that America is back at allies side, but a lot of those allies are themselves pretty rattled by what happened on January 6 and attempted overturning of your election. And they may still be alarmed by the continued hold that Donald Trump has over the Republican party and the rise of nationalist figures like him around the world. What do you say to those allies? What have you been saying to them at these meetings about how the next president of the United States can keep any promises you make?

JOE BIDEN: What I'm saying is to them is watch me. I mean, I'm not saying anything, quite frankly. I'm just going out.

People, as I've said before, I don't doubt that I mean what I say. And they believe that I keep my commitments when I say it. I'm not making any promises to anyone that I don't believe are overwhelmingly likely to be kept.

I think that we're at a moment where-- I mean, let me put it this way. You may have had a different view, but I think an awful lot of people thought that my showing up at the G7 would not produce any kind of enthusiasm about American leadership and about where America was.

I would suggest that it didn't turn out that way. I would suggest that there is the a-- the leaders I'm dealing with in NATO and the G7 are leaders who know our recent history, know generically the character of the American people, and know where the vast center of the public stands, not Democrat Republican, but who we are. We're a decent, honorable nation. And I think that they have seen things happen as we have that shocked them and surprised them that could have happened, but I think they, like I do, believe the American people are not going to sustain that kind of behavior.

And so I-- you know, I don't want to get into these statistics, because, you know, that old phrase [INAUDIBLE] there's three kinds of lies, lies, damn lies, and statistics. But I think it's appropriate to say that the Republican party is vastly diminished in numbers. The leadership of the Republican Party is fractured.

And the Trump wing of the party is the bulk of the party, but it makes up a significant minority of the American people. I think it is a shock and surprise that what's happened in terms of the consequence of President Trump's phony populism has, has happened. And it is disappointing that so many of my Republican colleagues in the Senate, who I know know better, have been reluctant to take on, for example, an investigation, because they're worried about being primaried.

But at the end of the day, we've been through periods like this in American history before, where there has been this reluctance to take a chance on your re-election because of the nature of your party's politics at the moment. I think this is passing. I don't mean easily passing.

That's why it's so important that I succeed in my agenda, the agenda whether it's dealing with the vaccine, the economy, infrastructure. It's important that we demonstrate we can make progress and continue to make progress. And I think we're going to be able to do that. So as I said, the proof will be in where it is, you know, six months from now, where we are, but I think you're going to see that there's-- that God willing, we're going to be making progress. And there's going to be a coalescing of a lot of Republicans, particularly younger Republicans, who are coming up in the party.