Grenell: When Biden offers new ideas, ask yourself: 'Why didn’t he try that over the last 48 years?'

Former acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell encouraged voters Wednesday to ask themselves a question when Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden proposes a new idea – why hasn't he tried that during his nearly five decades of elected office. 

"Joe Biden was first elected to the Senate in 1972, 48 years ago. Every time Joe Biden offers a new idea, you should ask yourself: 'Why didn’t he try that over the last 48 years?' " Grenell said during the third night of the Republican National Convention. 

He also warned that former Vice President Biden back in the White House increases the threat to Americans' safety and that Trump's "America First" foreign policy is the right approach.  

"A return to the Biden way of thinking means America gives the radical terrorist regime in Tehran a plane load of cash in the middle of the night. You see, President Trump also sent an aircraft in the middle of night to deal with Iran but that plane was on a different mission – an air strike to take out the head of Iran’s terror machine who plotted the deaths of Americans," he said at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night.

When Trump ran for president, Grenell said, it was 14 years after the start of the war in Afghanistan and 12 years after the invasion of Iraq "where thousands of American troops had died and trillions in taxpayer dollars had been spent."

"Yet no candidate could bring themselves to admit that something had gone badly wrong with American foreign policy – that the American voter, the American soldier, and the American taxpayer, had all been let down, except for one – Donald Trump," he said. "He called America’s endless wars what they were – a disaster."

Grenell said past presidents "welcomed China into the World Trade Organization" and they "engaged in nation-building in Afghanistan, and tried to export democracy to Iraq."

"They signed a nuclear deal with Iran, and a global climate agreement in Paris but they didn’t ground any of it in the interests of the average American," he said. "So for decades, while Washington politicians built a global system, American wages stagnated. Our great cities and industries were hollowed out. Entire communities were devastated, and our manufacturing plants were shipped off to China."

He added that Washington, D.C., under Trump "stopped being the capital of the United States and started being the capital of the world." 

Grenell said he wishes every American could see how Trump negotiates on their behalf.

"I’ve watched President Trump charm the chancellor of Germany, while insisting that Germany pay its NATO obligations," he said. "Donald Trump’s administration has always made clear that our priority is the American people’s security – that’s the job of all leaders – to put their people first."

Grenell said that Trump has "led even some Washington Democrats to agree on the Chinese threat," trade deals that "benefit Americans first" and alliances that "share responsibility."

"In four years, Donald Trump didn’t start any new wars. He brought troops home. He rebuilt the military, and signed peace deals that make Americans safer," he said.

Grenell also slammed the Democrats’ "entire case for Russian collusion."

"The Obama-Biden administration secretly launched a surveillance operation on the Trump campaign, and silenced the many brave intelligence officials who spoke up against it," he said. "They presented bogus information as facts. They lied to judges. Then they classified anything that undermined their case."

Grenell also said the Obama-Biden administration tried to "undercut" Trump during the transition in 2016. 

"Biden asked intelligence officials to uncover the hidden information on President Trump’s incoming national security adviser three weeks before the inauguration, but that’s the Democrats," he said.