White House Immediately Walks Back Closing Statement of Biden's High-Profile Poland Speech
The White House’s damage control office was working overtime again Saturday after President Joe Biden strongly implied that America wants a regime change in Russia.
At the close of a speech in Poland during which Biden called Russian leader Vladimir Putin a “butcher” and denounced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Biden said, “for God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” according to The New York Times.
It was not long before the White House sought to put a different spin on what those words were supposed to say as opposed to what they did.
“The president’s point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region,” a White House official said in a statement. “He was not discussing Putin’s power in Russia, or regime change.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded to Biden’s comment by saying, “That’s not for Biden to decide. The president of Russia is elected by Russians,” according to Reuters.
Dmitry Rogozin, the head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, mocked Biden in a tweet claiming that the clarification came from the “White House Medical Unit.”
At least one expert said the comment will not be written off as a slip of the tongue.
The White House walk back of @POTUS regime change call is unlikely to wash. Putin will see it as confirmation of what he’s believed all along. Bad lapse in discipline that runs risk of extending the scope and duration of the war.
— Richard N. Haass (@RichardHaass) March 26, 2022
.@potus just expanded US war aims, calling for regime change. However desirable it may be, it is not within our power to accomplish-plus runs risk it will increase Putin’s inclination to see this as a fight to the finish, raising odds he will reject compromise, escalate, or both.
— Richard N. Haass (@RichardHaass) March 26, 2022
“The White House walk back of @POTUS regime change call is unlikely to wash,” Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, said in a tweet. “Putin will see it as confirmation of what he’s believed all along. Bad lapse in discipline that runs risk of extending the scope and duration of the war.”
Biden’s Saturday gaffe came one day after making another huge one while talking to members of the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division currently based in Poland, according to the New York Post.
“You’re going to see when you’re there, and some of you have been there, you’re gonna see — you’re gonna see women, young people standing in the middle in front of a damned tank just saying, ‘I’m not leaving, I’m holding my ground,’” Biden said.
So this happened TWICE ⬇️
White House had to clarify that…
Biden didn’t intend to suggest that U.S. troops would be going to Ukraine
Biden didn’t intend to suggest regime change in Russia
My gosh. Can’t afford these kind of mistakes!
— Kayleigh McEnany (@kayleighmcenany) March 26, 2022
The White House then tried to extinguish the fire and clarify that there was no plan afoot to send troops in to combat.
“The president has been clear we are not sending US troops to Ukraine and there is no change in that position,” the White House spokesman said.
On Thursday, Biden had some people scratching their heads over what he really meant when he said the response to any Russian use of chemical weapons in Ukraine “would depend on the nature of the use.”
Biden then said U.S. would respond “in kind.”
Asked by @CeciliaVega if the use of chemical weapons in Ukraine would trigger a military response from NATO, Pres. Biden says: “It would trigger a response in kind.”https://t.co/XFaQ3wJP6k pic.twitter.com/QjE2wSD3oO
— ABC News (@ABC) March 24, 2022
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan tried to gloss over that one.
“The United States has no intention of using chemical weapons, period, under any circumstance,” Sullivan said.
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