Story highlights
The vice president says it's time for Donald Trump to figure out "how to be an adult"
"You're president. You got to do something. Show us what you have," Joe Biden adds
Vice President Joe Biden has a message for the next President: “Grow up, Donald.”
In an interview with PBS NewsHour that aired Thursday, Biden was asked about President-elect Donald Trump’s tweets, specifically one where he called Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer “the head clown” and another in which he wrote, “Doing my best to disregard the many inflammatory President O statements and roadblocks. Thought it was going to be a smooth transition - NOT!”
Biden responded it was time for Trump to “be an adult.”
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“Grow up, Donald. Grow up. Time to be an adult,” he said. “You’re president. You’ve got to do something. Show us what you have. You’re going to propose legislation. We’re going to get to debate it. Let the public decide. Let them vote in Congress. Let’s see what happens.”
He continued, “It’s going to be much clearer what he’s for and against, and what we’re for and against, now that it’s going to get down to actually discussing in detail these issues that affect people’s lives.”
Biden also said it’s “dangerous” for the President-elect to be skeptical of US intelligence agencies.
“I think it’s dangerous,” he said in the interview. “For a President not to have confidence in, not to be prepared to listen to the myriad of intelligence agencies from defense intelligence, to the CIA, et cetera, is absolutely mindless. It’s just mindless.”
‘Pathetic’
New York Republican Rep. Chris Collins, a member of Trump’s transition executive committee, denounced Biden’s response in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.
“That’s a pathetic response,” Collins said Thursday on “The Situation Room.” “I think it’s beneath the Office of the Vice President. It shows just the angst of the loss of this election by (President Barack) Obama, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden. Donald Trump is the adult in the room.”
This isn’t the first time Biden has been outspoken against Trump. In an interview with CNN in October before the 2016 election, Biden slammed Trump, saying that the Republican presidential nominee “lacks any sensibilities about the American people.”
“He’s not a bad man,” Biden said at the time. “But his ignorance is so profound, so profound.”
CNN’s Gregory Wallace contributed to this report.