Biden weighs in on Trump tweets, Steve Bannon
Vice President Joe Biden criticized President Trump's most recent tweets about the Justice Department and FBI, calling them "completely irresponsible and dangerous," and he questioned Mr. Trump's nuclear threat against North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. Biden made the remarks while on Capitol Hill on Wednesday after he escorted Senator-elect Doug Jones to his swearing-in ceremony.
Biden said Mr. Trump's comments describing his DOJ as "deep state" and his ongoing criticism of the FBI "demoralizes" the agencies and "sends messages to incredibly ill-informed foreign leaders who are not our friends that are equally as dangerous."
"She put classified passwords into the hands of foreign agents," Mr. Trump tweeted about Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin, and he urged the DOJ to prosecute her and former FBI Director James Comey.
When asked to comment on the president's tweeted boast to Kim Jong Un about the size of his "nuclear button," Biden sighed then told reporters, "I just hope he doesn't touch it."
He added, "The only war that's worse than one that's intended is the one that's unintended. This is not the stuff to be tweeting about. It is a very, very, very difficult problem, and one of the first things we talked with the Trump team about in the transition was North Korea. He doesn't have any easy answers, but this is dangerous to continue this kind of almost child's play."
Biden also commented on former White House adviser Steve Bannon, after the release of explosive excerpts from author Michael Wolff's forthcoming book on the Trump White House.
The former vice president said Bannon's remark that a June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya was "unpatriotic" and "treasonous" was a "hell of a statement coming from Bannon."
Bannon had allegedly told Wolff that the government investigation into whether Trump campaign associates colluded with the Russians would "crack Don Junior like an egg on national TV."
In a scathing statement released after excerpts were published, Mr. Trump slammed Bannon and diminished his role on the Trump campaign, adding that when Bannon was fired from the White House, "he not only lost his job, he lost his mind."
Biden said the president's reaction to Bannon read "like a mystery novel."
CBS News' Alan He contributed to this report.