Biden’s Remarks on Putin
Biden’s remarks on Putin put the White House in clean-up mode. President Joe Biden remarked during his speech in Warsaw that President Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power”.
“I just was expressing my outrage. He shouldn’t remain in power, just like, you know, bad people shouldn’t continue to do bad things,” Biden said in an interview with CNN. “But it doesn’t mean we have a fundamental policy to do anything to take Putin down in any way.”
“I was talking to the Russian people,” Biden said on Monday at the White House. “The last part of the speech was talking to Russian people,” he said. “I was communicating this to, not only the Russian people but the whole world. This is … just stating a simple fact that this kind of behavior is totally unacceptable. Totally unacceptable. And the way to deal with it is to strengthen and keep NATO completely united and help Ukraine where we can.”
Clean Up Mode
This has happened frequently as White House officials clean up after speeches of so-called “Ad-libs”.
As he was hailing the heroism of the Ukrainians, Biden told US troops, “You’re going to see when you’re there” — even though he’s vowed American forces won’t be entering the conflict directly. Afterward, a spokesman said nothing had changed: “The President has been clear we are not sending US troops to Ukraine.”
On Monday, Biden pushed back on any suggestion he’d told US troops stationed in Poland they were going to Ukraine, telling a reporter, “We were talking about helping train the troops that are the Ukrainian troops that are in Poland. That’s the context.”
Kremlin’s Response
Officially, the Kremlin’s response came from spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who said the fate of the Russian ruler is “not to be decided by Mr. Biden.”
Peskov then said on Monday that the comments “are certainly causing concern,” adding, “We will continue to closely monitor the statements of the US President. We carefully note them and will continue to do so.”