White House Walks Back Biden’s Stunning Putin Remarks: President Was Not Discussing ‘Regime Change’
Omar Marques, Getty Images
President Joe Biden stunned listeners around the world, including those in the media, when he said in his speech in Warsaw that Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power.” A short time later, a White House official walked those comments back.
Biden called Putin “a dictator bent on rebuilding an empire,” and said that Ukraine will “never be a victory for Russia” in his remarks on Saturday. He concluded by saying, “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.”
A short time later, an official who declined to be named walked those comments back, saying that it was not about regime change or overthrow, but about Putin’s larger position on the world stage.
“The President’s point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region,” the official said. “He was not discussing Putin’s power in Russia, or regime change.”
As Josh Lederman noted on MSNBC, President Biden’s comments “caught a lot of people off guard,” and “raised questions” about whether there’s been a change to U.S. policy toward “removing President Putin from office.”
On its face, the comment from the White House official, who declined to be named, does not go all the way to clarifying Biden’s statement about Putin “remaining in power.” At least not insofar as why he said it that way.
But many members of the media take it at face value that the administration is not supporting regime change after all. Whether it was meant to encourage or foment the notion among the Russian citizenry or the oligarchs is, at least for now, just a matter of speculation.
