Biden says his ‘moral outrage’ at Putin does not signal a U.S. policy shift
U.S. President Joe Biden reiterated on Monday that he was not announcing a change in US policy when he had said that Russian President Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power”. He clarified that the comments did not reflect new U.S. policy, but rather an expression of his “personal feelings” and “moral outrage”.
“I just was expressing my outrage. He shouldn’t remain in power, just like, you know, bad people shouldn’t continue to do bad things,” Biden told reporters. “But it doesn’t mean we have a fundamental policy to do anything to take Putin down in any way.”
Biden’s off-the-cuff remark during his emotional speech in Warsaw, Poland, prompted global headlines and landed White House officials in a difficult position following which they immediately clarified that the United States was not pursuing regime change in Russia.
“I’m not walking anything back,” Biden said on Monday. “The fact of the matter is I was expressing the moral outrage I felt toward the way Putin is dealing and the actions of this man,” Biden continued, noting he had just met with Ukrainian refugees before giving his speech in Poland. “But I want to make it clear: I wasn’t then nor am I now articulating a policy change,” the U.S. president said. “I was expressing moral outrage that I feel, and I make no apologies for it.”
Biden continued: “The last thing I want to do is engage in a land war or nuclear war with Russia … I was expressing my outrage at the behavior of this man. It’s more an aspiration — he shouldn’t be in power. People like this shouldn’t be ruling countries, but they do.”.
Biden had previously throughout the crisis in Ukraine, labeled Putin as a “murderous dictator” and a “war criminal.”
