Those are some pretty strong words, especially when uttered by Robert Gates, Obama’s highly respected Secretary of Defense. Gates spoke to CBS News’ Margaret Brennan on “Face The Nation” over the weekend and said he stands by the comments he made about Joe Biden in his 2015 memoir:

Joe Biden is impossible not to like. He is a man of integrity, incapable of hiding what he really thinks and one of those rare people you know you can turn to for help in a personal crisis. Still, I think he’s been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.

Gates was asked if Biden would be an effective commander-in-chief?

I don’t know…I don’t know…I think I stand by that statement. He and I agreed on some key issues in the Obama administration. We disagreed significantly on Afghanistan and some other issues.… as I say elsewhere in the memoir, I think the vice president had some issues with the military. So how he would get along with the senior military, and what that relationship would be, I think it would depend on the personalities at the time.

Gates’ reply doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. And, unfortunately for Biden, this sentiment has been echoed many times on both sides of the aisle throughout his long career in public service.

Former Assistant Secretary of State Robert Charles strongly agrees with Gates’ assessment of Biden’s foreign policy issues. In a recent appearance on Fox News, Charles said:

If you go back in time, this is a guy who wanted to divide up Iraq. He opposed the Bin Laden raid. In favor of the phony Iran deal and sending cash to them.

Back in 1979, this is a guy who celebrated the Ayatollahs coming to power because he thought that was going to bring human rights. This is a guy that opposed the defense buildup of Ronald Reagan. He opposed the B-1. He opposed the B-2 that brought down … that policy direction brought down the Soviet Union. He opposed the MX missiles.

Next, Charles addressed Biden’s recent controversial remarks about China.

Biden had said:

China is going to eat our lunch? Come on, man! The fact that they have this great division between the China Sea and the mountains in the East — I mean in the West. They can’t figure out how they’re going to deal with the corruption that exists within the system. They’re not bad folks, folks. But guess what, they’re not competition for us.

Trump, understandably jumped on Biden’s comments, saying, “For somebody to be so naive, and say China’s not a problem – if Biden actually said that, that’s a very dumb statement.”

Charles agreed Biden’s statements were naive, and said:

China is truly our number one potential adversary and our number one competitor in the world. This is a country that right now kills about 13 million children through infanticide or abortion a year on their one-child policy. They have about a million peaceful Muslims in prison camps up in the northwest for reeducation as good communists. They execute about 2400 of their people annually, a lot of them for dissidence. They have islands in the South China Sea that they built for disruption of international trade. They are pushing the limits on super computing to hack us. They have space weapons that they have tested.

Of course, we all know Biden has “other” reasons for downplaying the threat China poses to the U.S. But that’s a separate issue.

Suffice it to say, given Joe Biden’s proven history of poor judgement on foreign policy and national security issues, a Biden presidency would be dangerous for the country.