US President Joe Biden (file image)
Photo: AP
Biden gave an interview to CBS News anchor Scott Pelley at the White House, which will air on Sunday. Biden’s reaction came shortly after Pelley asked what the consequences would be if Putin crossed the line. Biden said, “Do you think I would tell you if I knew exactly what it would be? Of course I won’t tell you. There will be consequences. You will become more of a pariah than ever before in the world. And the scale of their activities will determine what reaction would occur.”
In an interview for this Sunday’s “60 Minutes,” Pelley spoke to Biden about Ukraine’s recent success on the battlefield — and the dangers that could result. “While Ukraine is thriving on the battlefield, Vladimir Putin is becoming embarrassed to be backed into a corner,” Pelley told Biden.
“And I wonder, Mr. President, what you would tell him if he were considering using chemical or tactical nuclear weapons.” Not. Not. They will change the face of war unlike anything since World War II,” Biden replied.
Biden also told Pelley about his efforts to avert a national railroad strike. On Thursday, the President announced that after 20 hours of negotiations at the US Department of Labor, a tentative agreement had been reached between the railroad companies and the railroad workers’ unions. “We brought business and labor together,” the president told Pelley.
“One of the things that happens in negotiations, especially when they’ve been prolonged like that, is that people say and do things that pride gets involved in too. And it’s awfully hard to pull away from some of those things. So, what we did was just say, “Look, let’s take a look. Let’s take a look at what’s happening.”
“You got a good deal for the job. Your income will increase by 24 percent over the next five years. They worked out the health piece, they worked out the days off. They both sat down I think, and they were in the office today and they said, “Well, we finally figured it out. That’s fair on both sides.” And it took that time to focus.
“The alternative was simply unthinkable. If they had actually gone on strike, supply chains in that country would have ground to a halt. We would have seen a real economic crisis,” Biden said. The interview is Biden’s first meeting with 60 Minutes since he was elected president.
(The article was written by IANS. Only the headline has been changed.)
