By Jeff Mason
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden said on Sunday he thinks it’s appalling that President-elect Donald Trump is trying to end the right to birthright citizenship in the United States.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Biden said the transition to the Trump administration appeared to be going smoothly, although he said he thought there was an internal problem with Trump’s team related to the handover.
Asked ahead of the January 6, 2021, anniversary of the attack on the US Capitol if he still thinks Trump is a threat to democracy, Biden said he thinks what Trump has done is “a real threat to democracy.”
Trump falsely claimed to have won the 2020 election and called on his supporters to march on the Capitol that day.
“It doesn’t need to be rewritten,” Biden said of Jan. 6. “I don’t think he should be forgotten.”
Biden said that white supremacy is one of many threats to the United States.
“We are the most comprehensive multicultural nation in the world. That’s why we’re so strong. That’s why we are who we are,” Biden said.
Trump told NBC last month that he plans to take executive action on his first day in office to try to end birthright citizenship, which grants citizenship to anyone born in the US regardless of their parents’ immigration status.
“The idea that we’re going to change a constitutional right by birth — if you’re born in a country … you’re not a citizen? What’s going on?” Biden said.
Biden, a Democrat, criticized Trump, a Republican, for urging lawmakers not to vote for a bipartisan immigration bill that Biden supported to strengthen border enforcement. “It’s ridiculous. It’s ridiculous,” Biden said.
Trump used immigration as a key issue to rally his base in the 2024 election, which he won, defeating Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee.
