WASHINGTON _ Joe Biden's campaign lashed back at President Donald Trump for agreeing with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's insult of the former vice president, calling the president's remarks "beneath the dignity of the office."
"To be on foreign soil, on Memorial Day, and to side repeatedly with a murderous dictator against a fellow American and former vice president speaks for itself," Biden's deputy campaign manager, Kate Bedingfield, said in a statement, released just as Trump landed on his return from a trip to Japan.
She called it "part of a pattern of embracing autocrats at the expense of our institutions _ whether taking Putin's word at face value in Helsinki or exchanging 'love letters' with Kim Jong Un."
At a news conference in Monday in Tokyo, Trump said Kim "made a statement that Joe Biden is a low-IQ individual. He probably is, based on his record. I think I agree with him on that."
Trump also tweeted on Saturday that he "smiled" at an article from the state-run Korean Central News Agency that criticized Biden's intelligence and documented gaffes from his career in politics. "Perhaps that's sending me a signal?"
KCNA last week called Biden a "fool of low IQ" and a "snob bereft of elementary quality as human being."
Biden's campaign didn't respond immediately after Trump's tweet or his remarks at the news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. A Biden aide said the campaign waited to respond out of respect for the Memorial Day holiday observed on Monday.
The president's statements drew bipartisan criticism. Rep. Peter King, a New York Republican, tweeted that Trump's remarks were "wrong."
"Politics stops at water's edge," King wrote on Twitter. "Never right to side with murderous dictator vs. fellow American."
Biden is currently the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020 and is the candidate the Trump has appeared most worried about facing in the general election next year. Trump has made him a frequent target of barbs and insults.
