Yahoo Finance columnist Rick Newman breaks down President Biden's recent remarks about Vladimir Putin not staying in power.

Video Transcript

- Vladimir Putin can't remain in power. Here's what he said at a news conference earlier. Take a listen.

JOE BIDEN: 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 of it.

- Well, let's bring in Yahoo Finance's Rick Newman. Now, Rick, Biden is making it clear that his comments don't signify a fundamental policy change. What's your take on this?

RICK NEWMAN: I think Biden handled this pretty well today. This seems to be a reasonable way to square the circle, if you will. So just to remind everybody, Biden said over the weekend that Putin-- "this man," he called him-- cannot remain in power. And the reason that was such a concern for diplomats and foreign policy experts everywhere is it made people think, wait a minute, is the United States now going to try to get rid of Vladimir Putin?

And the White House quickly said, no, no, no. We don't-- it's not our national policy to get rid of Putin. The president just would be happier if he weren't there. And I think Biden did a pretty good job there of explaining what he meant.

He basically said, look, this is my personal point of view. I was emotional when I said that. And I'm standing by it. Russia and the world would be better off with Putin. But it is not US policy to actually try to do something to get him out of power.

So that should more or less settle it. But critics of Biden are going to continue to point to this as one of his famous gaffes. And I guess you can add it to the list of colorful things Biden has said over the years.

- Rick, the president is well aware that when he speaks, the United States speaks. This is not anything he's just learned. And the theory goes that this could strengthen Vladimir Putin in Russia. What do you make of that theory?

RICK NEWMAN: I don't think it's necessarily true. I guess it could rally people to Putin inside Russia who are not already rallying to Putin's side, because now he looks like the possible target of, you know, the United States, the aggressor, I guess, to some extent, you could argue, from inside Russia. It validates Putin's claim that the West is out to get him.

But to me, anybody who was on the fence on that is not gonna be persuaded. If you flip that around, there probably are some people inside Ukraine fighting for their nation who took heart at Biden's words and thought, of course, Biden is saying what everybody in Ukraine feels and thinks.

And there may also be some people inside Russia, if they ever get the message, who hear, wow, the president of the United States is denouncing our leader. Maybe we should think twice about what Putin's up to here. So I think there were some people who were quite heartened to hear what Biden had to say.

- I appreciate the update. Yahoo Finance's Rick Newman there.