FILE - In this June 15, 2011, file photo, then-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates testifies regarding the Department of Defense Fiscal Year 2012 budget request before the Senate Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on Defense on Capitol Hill in Washington. Gates asserts in a new memoir that President Barack Obama grew frustrated with U.S. policy in Afghanistan and that Vice President Joe Biden has been wrong on nearly every foreign policy and national security issue. He also accuses members of Congress of inquisition-like treatment of administration officials. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)
January 07, 2014 - 3:24 PM
WASHINGTON - The White House is pushing back against criticism that former Defence Secretary Robert Gates has levelled against Vice-President Joe Biden in a new book.
Gates' memoir is titled "Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War." He is quoted as saying Biden has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue of the last four decades.
White House spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden says President Barack Obama disagrees. She says Biden has been a leading statesman and has advanced U.S. leadership abroad. Hayden says Obama relies on Biden's good counsel every day.
Responding to another Gates claim, that Obama lost confidence in the Afghanistan surge, Hayden says the president has always welcomed different views within his team.
Gates served under Obama and former President George W. Bush.
News from © The Associated Press, 2014