UPDATED: 28 MAR 2022 04:33 PM EST
President Joe Biden on Monday said he was “not walking anything back” after his weekend remarks about Russian President Vladimir Putin put the White House on defense.
While visiting Poland on Saturday, Biden said Putin “cannot remain in power.” The comment, which was not included in Biden’s prepared remarks, sparked a White House statement clarifying that Biden was not calling for regime change in Russia.
“I want to make it clear: I wasn’t then, nor am I now, articulating a policy change,” Biden said on Monday. “I was expressing moral outrage, and I make no apologies for it.”
The president spoke to reporters while announcing his budget for fiscal year 2023, and the first question asked dealt with his off-the-cuff statement in Poland. Biden emphasized that his comments reflected his “personal feelings” and had not complicated diplomacy efforts.
“Has it weakened NATO? No, it hasn’t,” Biden said. “NATO has never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever been as strong as it is today. Never.”
When pressed on whether his comments would effect diplomacy with Russia, Biden pushed the blame on Putin, noting that the Russian leader’s “escalatory efforts” are what “complicates things.” The president brushed off assumptions that his comments could be taken by Putin as an escalatory step.
But some of the United States’ NATO allies disagree, including French President Emmanuel Macron, who warned that world leaders must not “escalate” in words or action.
“I don’t care what [Putin] thinks,” Biden said. “This is a guy who goes to the beat of his own drummer. And the idea that he is going to do something outrageous because I called him for what he was and what he’s doing, I think, is just not rational.”
Biden’s speech on Saturday, delivered from the Royal Palace in Warsaw, called on U.S. allies to be “clear-eyed” in a “battle between democracy and autocracy, between liberty and repression.” Near the end of his remarks, the president added, “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” referring to Putin.
White House officials quickly walked back the president’s statement, noting that the line was not in his prepared remarks and that Biden was decrying Putin’s exertion of power beyond Russia’s borders.
“He was not discussing Putin’s power in Russia, or regime change,” an official said in a statement.
The Russian government responded to Biden’s comments Saturday, warning that such “personal insults” could “narrow the window of opportunity” for negotiation. On Monday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov maintained that Biden’s statement was “certainly alarming.”
“We will continue to track the statements of the U.S. president in the most attentive way," Peskov said.
On Monday, Biden emphasized that his unscripted comments were directed toward Russians.
“The last part of the speech was talking to the Russian people, telling them what we thought,” Biden explained. “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.”
For weeks, White House officials have emphasized the U.S. is not pushing for regime change in Russia, instead opting for measures to sway Russians’ perceptions against Putin. Secretary of State Antony Blinken emphasized this strategy on Sunday, explaining that the U.S. does “not have a strategy of regime change in Russia” and that “it’s up to the Russian people” to remove Putin.
