SYDNEY, Australia (CU)_The deadly riots carried out by the supporters of the US President Donald Trump in the US Capitol a couple of weeks ago, has “detracted” from President Trump’s legacy, Australian prime minister Scott Morrison said.
Speaking on the Australian radio station 2GB on Wednesday (Jan 20), the Prime Minister noted that the recent riots at the US Capitol building was a continuation of what had been a year of political upheaval and violence in America.
“The last couple of months really detracted from other things that [the Trump administration] was able to achieve over the last four years,” he said. “That’s what was really disappointing.”
PM Morrison further noted that he had worked alongside “some very good people” in the Trump administration, and conveyed his well wishes to outgoing vice president Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
He added that relations between the United states and Australia is “the most important relationship” Canberra has.
“And if people are going to have a crack at me because I’ve worked with the President of the United States, well, I think that reflects more on them than me,” he said, referring to those who have criticised the Australian Prime Minister’s working relationship with President Trump.
One such critic has been Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese, who has said that PM Morrison’s affinity with President Trump is damaging Australia’s relations with the incoming Biden-Harris Democratic team.
Albanese says Morrison “remains afraid of the far-right extremist fringe dwellers who make up the bedrock of [Trump’s] personal support – and who he cultivates through the avatars of Trumpists and conspiracy theorists like Craig Kelly and George Christensen”.
“Mr Morrison wants to ride this tiger because he thinks he’s on a political winner – but we have seen this month that the longer you ride it, the harder it is to dismount,” he added.
Therefore, the Opposition Leader called on the Australian Prime Minister to re-engage with multilateral cooperation after “pandering” to Trump with rhetoric about “negative globalism”.
Albanese also criticised PM Morrison for accepting the legion of merit, the highest military honour of the US, from President Trump, describing the move as “rather bizarre”. He further noted that Morrison’s “stubborn resistance to joining the global consensus on climate change” will leave Australia “totally isolated”, considering the incoming Biden administration’s climate policy.
Nevertheless, PM Morrison insists that as prime minister he is a “steward” of the “very important relationship between Australia and the US” and that Biden would “join [him] in that stewardship”. In terms of the Biden administration’s stance toward Australia and China, Morrison says he expects that “there would be a continuation of those policy settings that have so favoured the Australian alliance”.
