U.S. ambassador to NATO: No policy of 'regime change' in Russia

"Regime change" in Russia is not American policy, the U.S. ambassador to NATO said Sunday.

Speaking on "Fox News Sunday," Ambassador Julianne Smith said President Joe Biden's statement Saturday that "For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power" was not meant to demand that President Vladimir Putin be toppled in Russia.

After Biden's speech in Poland, his remarks sparked a round of clarifications from various American officials. On Sunday, Smith addressed those remarks as well.

"Let me be clear and just state right off the the bat that the U.S. does not have a policy of regime change toward Russia," Smith told host John Roberts.

She added: "But I think what we all agree on is that President Putin cannot be empowered to wage war. He has attacked Ukraine in a premeditated, unprovoked conflict."

When pressed further on Biden's seemingly off-the-cuff statement, Smith seemed to suggest that the president's statement might have been an emotional response to his encounters earlier in the day with refugees from the war now in Poland.

"He went to the national stadium in Warsaw and literally met with hundreds of Ukrainian refugees. He listened to their heroic stories about fleeing Ukraine in the wake of Russia's brutal aggression there, and it was a very moving day," she said. "We don't want to see Putin continuing this war."

Later on the same show, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) also suggested that Biden's remark was based on his emotions.

"The president was speaking from his heart," Khanna said.

Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) told CNN's Dana Bash that regardless of his motives, Biden needed to be more disciplined.

"As you pointed out already, there was a horrendous gaffe right at the end of it," he said on "State of the Union." "I wish he would stay on script. Whoever wrote that speech did a good job for him. My gosh, I wish they would keep him on script. I think most people who don't deal in the lane of foreign relations don't realize those nine words that he uttered would cause the kind of eruption that they did."

"Any time you say or even, as he did, suggest that the policy was regime change, it's going to cause a huge problem," Risch said.