Joe Biden, At Midterm Fundraiser At Home Of James Murdoch, Talks Of Vladimir Putin’s Nuclear Threat: Biggest Risk Of “Armageddon” Since Cuban Missile Crisis

Ted Johnson
·2 min read
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President Joe Biden warned of the “assault” on American institutions and talked of the threat of Vladimir Putin using nuclear weapons at an issue-heavy fundraiser Thursday at the New York home of James Murdoch, the son of Rupert Murdoch.

The event raised money for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, hoping to retain the party’s majority in the chamber. Murdoch has backed away from his father’s media empire and diverges from his politics: He backed Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign, at one point chipping in $615,000 to the Biden Victory Fund, according to Federal Election Commission records.

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According to a pool report, Biden told attendees at the event that “this is not your father’s Republican party.” He said that there was an “assault on all these institutions,” naming the White House and the Supreme Court.

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The president’s starkest warning was about Putin, who finds himself stalled in his efforts to invade Ukraine. Biden said that the U.S. would continue to support Ukraine, but also spoke of the nuclear threat.

“First time since the Cuban missile crisis we have a direct threat of the use of nuclear weapons if in fact things continue down the path they are going,” Biden said, invoking John F. Kennedy’s stand-off with Nikita Khrushchev, 60 years ago this month.

“I’m trying to figure out, what is Putin’s off-ramp?” Biden said. “Where does he find a way out? Where does he find himself in a position that he does not only lose face but lose significant power within Russia?”

Biden said that Putin is “not joking when he talks about potential use of tactical nuclear weapons of biological or chemical weapons because his military is, you might say, significantly underperforming.”

He said that there was not “any such thing” as a way to use a tactical nuclear weapon “and not end up with Armageddon.”

Biden earlier attended a fundraiser at the home of New Jersey’s governor, Phil Murphy, raising $1 million for the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Grassroots Victory Fund. Among the 15 or so attendees: Jon Bon Jovi.

Biden said that he felt “pretty good” about Democrats’ Senate prospects “but it’s premature.” The House looks to be a greater challenge for the party, in part because of gerrymandered districts.

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