Newsmax Reporter Asks Psaki Why Biden Didn’t Let Putin Think US Might Attack Russia Over Ukraine

Newsmax White House correspondent James Rosen asked White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki why President Joe Biden took military action off the table from the outset, rather than let Vladimir Putin believe the U.S, might respond to the Ukraine invasion with military force.

At a White House press briefing Monday, the war in Ukraine dominated the questioning, with multiple reporters asking what a U.S. response to further Russian atrocities would look like if military action is off the table.

But Rosen took a slightly different approach, asking Psaki what was behind the decision to foreclose direct military action rather than leaving it on the table, at least theoretically, in order to deter Putin from invading in the first place:

MR. ROSEN: One key decision made by the President early on was to remove strategic ambiguity from this equation. Never really was Mr. Putin forced to wonder what consequences he would face. He was told at the outset he would never face military intervention by the United States and NATO, that the full range of the punishments he would face would amount to diplomatic and economic sanctions.

I think a lot of people wonder why a greater effort wasn’t made to leave Mr. Putin in doubt about the consequences he might face.

MS. PSAKI: Because the President is the President of the United States of America, and he felt it was important to be clear with the American people about what his intentions were and what they were not.

And his intentions were not to send men and women, their sons and daughters to fight a war in Ukraine against Russia.

Last week, President Biden was asked “would the US have a military response if Putin does launch a chemical weapon attack?”

He replied that “Russia would pay a severe price if they use chemical weapons.”

Watch above via NBC News and AP Video.

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