Posted on 03/28/22
| News Source: NY Post
President Biden contradicted his own staff Monday by insisting he did not regret or retract his spontaneous call from over the weekend for Russian President Vladimir Putin to be removed from power in response to his invasion of Ukraine.
“I’m not walking anything back,” Biden told reporters at the White House during an unscripted Q&A — after his subordinates strenuously walked back Biden’s initial, ad-libbed remarks.
“I was expressing the moral outrage that I felt,” the president went on, adding: “I wasn’t then, nor am I now, articulating a policy change. I was expressing the moral outrage that I feel and I make no apologies for it.”
When pressed by reporters to more fully explain his stance, Biden said, “I was talking to the Russian people. The last part of the speech was talking to the Russian people, telling them what we thought.”
On Saturday, Biden ended a widely watched speech in Poland by saying of Putin, “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.”
Shortly after that remark, an unnamed White House aide said in a rushed statement to reporters: “The President’s point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region. He was not discussing Putin’s power in Russia, or regime change.”
On Sunday, White House chief of staff Ron Klain retweeted a message from CNN White House correspondent John Harwood that said Biden’s remark showed a “significant lapse in discipline,” while the president told reporters upon leaving church that same day that “no” he wasn’t calling for regime change in Russia.