Joe Biden: Terrorists don’t ‘change our way of life or our security’

Vice president Joseph Biden said to a Harvard University crowd that Americans don’t really face an “existential threat” from terrorism, and that by and large, it’s business as usual in the United States.

He made his remarks in context of discussing foreign policy, and saying to students that they should keep their fears about terrorists “in perspective,” The Hill reported.

On one hand, the country should stay on guard, he said. But on the other, America should realize that terrorists don’t change “our way of life or our security,” he said, The Hill reported.

“Let me say it again: We face no existential threat — none — to our way of life or our ultimate security,” Mr. Biden said, The Hill reported. “You are twice as likely to be struck by lightning as you are to be affected by a terrorist event in the United States.”

Against this backdrop, the United States — under President Obama’s order — expanded its air strike campaign against Islamic State terrorists in Iraq and Syria. In a recent interview with “60 Minutes,” Mr. Obama described the group’s members as posing “immediate threats to the United States,” he said.

“These folks could kill Americans,” Mr. Obama said, during the “60 Minutes” interview.

Mr. Biden did admit that the Islamic State has shown the “most blatant use of terrorist tactics the world has seen in a long, long time,” but added that the United States “knows how to deal with them,” The Hill reported.

“While we face an adaptive, resilient enemy, let’s never forget that they’re no match for an even more resilient and adaptive group of people, the America people, who are so much tougher, smarter, realistic and gutsy than their political leadership gives them credit for,” Mr. Biden said, The Hill reported.

He wrapped with more fanfare: “We’re America. Americans will never, ever stand down. We endure. We overcome. We own the finish line. So do not take out of proportion this threat to us.”