Joe Biden says he visited Ireland to make sure 'the British don't cheat'

Joe Biden meets with Taoiseach Irishman Leo Varadkar in Dublin during his April visit. Photo: Niall Carson/Getty Images

Joe Biden said he traveled to the island of Ireland to «make sure the British weren't cheating» and «walking away» from their obligations under the Good Friday deal.

His The latest criticism of the UK was made during a fundraising speech in New York at the Democratic National Committee reception on Wednesday night.

The US President visited Belfast before traveling to Ireland during the week of the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement in April.

Mr. Biden said he went after the «Irish Accords to make sure they didn't… they didn't fool around […] they didn't back down.»

The president and other senior Democrats saw in Brexit a threat to the peace process because he risked having to return to a hard border on the island of Ireland.

Before the new Windsor Framework was agreed, the President warned the UK that it could forget about the UK-US trade deal if it followed through on its threat to break the Irish Sea Boundary Treaty with the EU.

Visit in a gaffe

In Belfast, Mr Biden urged the DUP to support Rishi Sunak's new Brexit deal for Northern Ireland and mentioned the prospect of a multibillion-dollar US investment if they ended the boycott of Stormont.

Almost immediately after leaving Northern Ireland, where high-ranking DUP politicians accused of hating Britain, Mr Biden made a faux pas at the Windsor Pub in Dundalk.

He confused New Zealand All Blacks with Blacks and Tans, former British soldiers notorious for reprisals against Irish citizens during the Irish War of Independence.

Paying tribute to Rob Kearney, a distant relative who played rugby for Ireland, Biden said: «He was a damn good rugby player and he beat the black and tan as hell. Oh my God.»

But he also chided Mr Sunak for not working closely enough with Dublin to return Stormont. and works.

Mr Biden is a Catholic who is fiercely proud of his Irish heritage and is suspected by some trade unionists of wanting to unite Ireland.

His ancestors fled famine-ravaged Ireland in search of a better life in the United States around 1851. The president said they left in a «coffin ship» because of «what the British were doing.»

Joe Biden addresses a crowd of thousands in Ballina during his visit. Photo: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images

He says his hero is Wolfe Tone, an 18th century Irishman sentenced to death for rebelling against British rule.

As a senator in 1985, Biden opposed and softened an extradition treaty with Britain that would have made it easier to extradite IRA terrorists.

“If you wear orange, you are not welcome here,” he said. joked when welcoming the Irish Prime Minister to the White House in 2015.

In November 2020, he was asked by a reporter for «a quick word for the BBC». «I'm Irish,» Mr. Biden replied.

In a speech in New York on Wednesday, Mr. Biden, who is running for a second term, warned against the prospect of Donald Trump winning the next presidential election.

He said he told European leaders at the G7 meeting in the UK that «America is back».

But he said: «Macron looked at me and asked, 'How long?'

Mr Biden added that Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, asked him what America would think if the British voters will break down the doors of the House of Commons to cancel the election.

He said the world was «stunned» after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021.