CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Defends Biden Over Press Conference: ‘President Biden Said Exactly What He Thinks’
CNN White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins defended President Joe Biden over one of the most controversial portions of his marathon press conference.
On Thursday morning’s edition of CNN’s New Day, co-anchor Kasie Hunt asked Collins to weigh in on the president’s comments on Ukraine, which have drawn heavy criticism. and prompted a clarification from White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki.
At issue were remarks Biden made in response to a question from Bloomberg’s Jennifer Epstein about Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine. The President said:
I think what you’re going to see is that Russia will be held accountable if it invades. And it depends on what it does. It’s one thing if it’s a minor incursion and then we end up having a fight about what to do and not do, et cetera.
He also told David Sanger “I’m not so sure [Putin] has — is certain what he’s going to do. My guess is he will move in. He has to do something,” and went on to say “there’s room to work if he wants to do that. But I think, as usual, he’s going to — well, I probably shouldn’t go any further. But I think it will hurt him badly.”
Hunt asked Collins, “What is your view on how the White House and how the president projected himself to Vladimir Putin in that moment? And what are White House aides saying to you now behind the scenes about any damage that may have been done?”
“Well, I think you can see why Ukrainian officials are concerned about this because they are living in a really delicate situation right now, waiting to see what’s going to happen,” Collins said.
But she went on to defend the president’s answers, telling Hunt, “I actually viewed President Biden’s answer differently than a lot of people yesterday because I prefer, at a press conference, when a president offers a candid assessment of what he genuinely thinks of the situation.”
She praised the reporters, and added, “President Biden said exactly what he thinks is going to happen. They’re saying that he doesn’t know that Putin has made a final decision, but he does think that in the end, he will likely invade Ukraine.”
“And the comment about the minor incursion and NATO’s allies, not all being on the same page about what an invasion exactly would look like, and what would compel them to take action was really revealing. And I think that’s what President Biden was saying yesterday with this comment about a minor incursion,” Collins explained.
She went on to add that Biden “was very blunt about what’s going to happen if Russia does invade, saying that it is something that Putin will pay a dear price for, that he will regret. That’s pretty stark language from Biden.”
Watch above via CNN.
