Retired Navy admiral behind bin Laden raid: The rest of the world is waiting for Biden

Former Navy Adm. William McRaven said on Sunday that the world was waiting for “a Biden administration to come in” when speaking about the role of the U.S. on the international stage as President-elect Joe Biden prepares to assume power.

McRaven appeared on ABC’s “This Week,” where he spoke about the recent assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist and what it meant for Biden’s administration amid the president-elect’s Cabinet announcements, including the secretary of State and heads of intelligence.

On Friday, Iran’s state media announced that Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who was believed to have led the country’s nuclear program, was assassinated. Iranian officials pointed fingers at Israel for the attack and have promised retaliation.

“The Iranians don’t want to go to war with us. We don’t want to go to war with Iran. So everybody needs to do the best they can to kind of lower the temperature and try not to get this into an escalation mode,” McRaven said.

“The rest of the world is looking for a Biden administration to come in,” retired Navy Adm. William McRaven, who led raid that killed bin Laden, says.

The international community is concerned that President Trump is “not a coalition builder,” he adds. https://t.co/BhAIlCh4N0 pic.twitter.com/lrzH3fGvIu

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) November 29, 2020

Host Martha Raddatz noted that Biden has said he would reenter the Iran nuclear deal. She asked McRaven if Biden could do so without making changes to the original deal.

McRaven said he did not think the U.S. could reenter the original deal and that the recent assassination could complicate such endeavors. However, the former admiral said Biden would likely fare better internationally than President Trump has.

“The rest of the world, of course, is just looking for a Biden administration to come in. The concerns the international community has had for quite some time is that President Trump is not a coalition builder. He doesn’t believe in alliances,” said McRaven.

“The problem is if we don’t abide by our own treaties, if we don’t recognize and support our own treaties, then who in the international community is going to want to partner with us in the future? So President Trump has been playing a short game, I would offer. I hope President Biden will come in and strengthen these alliances, strengthen these coalitions, get back into some of these organizations, as imperfect as they might be, and begin to play the long game.”

In an op-ed published in The Wall Street Journal in October, McRaven said he would be voting for Biden, arguing that Trump posed a danger to the institutions of the U.S.

“If our promises are meaningless, how will our allies ever trust us? If we can’t have faith in our nation’s principles, why would the men and women of this nation join the military? And if they don’t join, who will protect us?” he wrote.