Biden ‘not walking anything back’ about his remark on Putin remaining in power
Speaking to reporters on Monday, President Biden said he wasn’t walking back the remark he made on Saturday, when he told a crowd in Warsaw, Poland, that Russian President Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power.” Biden told the reporters he was “expressing the moral outrage” he felt toward Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and its impact on the Ukrainian people. The remark on Saturday did not signal a policy change by the U.S. government regarding Russia, he said.
Video Transcript
JOE BIDEN: A dictator bent on rebuilding an empire will never erase the people's love for liberty. Brutality will never grind down the will to be free. Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia, for free people refused to live in a world of hopelessness and darkness. We will have a different future, a brighter future, rooted in democracy and principle, hope and light. Of decency and dignity, of freedom and possibilities. For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power.
- Do you believe what you said? That Putin can't remain in power? Or do you now regret saying that, because your government has been trying to walk that back. Did your words complicate matters?
JOE BIDEN: Well, you're asking three different questions. I'll answer them all. Number one, I'm not walking anything back. 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, just brutality. Half the children in Ukraine. I just come from being with those families. And so-- but I want to make it clear, 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.
- You personal feelings?
JOE BIDEN: My personal feelings. Secondly, you asked me about, well, what was the second part?
- Will it complicate the diplomacy of this moment?
JOE BIDEN: No, I don't think it does. The fact is that we're in a situation where what complicates the situation at the moment is the escalatory efforts of Putin to continue and engage in carnage, the kind of behavior that that makes the whole world say, my God. What is this man doing? That's what complicates things a great deal. And but I don't think it complicates it at all.
