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Were Biden’s comments about Putin an “unforced error?”

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Were President Joe Biden’s comments in Poland about Russian President Vladimir Putin –“For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power” — an unforced error? Was it indeed an error?

Biden’s apparently ad libbed sentence sparked launched a mini-firestorm — some of it due to it being anti-diplomatic, fears that it’ll further damage bad U.S.-Russia relations and perhaps lengthen Russia’s war against Ukraine. Some criticism also clearly political, coming from some Republicans who have no problem with Donald Trump continuing to praise Putin but see Biden’s comments as an opening to further embellish their ongoing attempt to portray Biden as a doddering, senile old man. The controversy here and abroad became so great that Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued several statements saying, no, the U.S. is not advocating regime change in Russia or anywhere.

Meanwhile, in France:

French President Emmanuel Macron warned against escalation Sunday regarding Ukraine, a day after President Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin was a “butcher” who “cannot remain in power.”

“I wouldn’t use this type of wording because I continue to hold discussions with President Putin,” Macron said Sunday during an appearance on France 3 TV channel. “We want to stop the war that Russia has launched in Ukraine without escalation — that’s the objective.”

His main goal remained “achieving first a cease-fire” and then a “total withdrawal” of Russian troops from Ukraine through “diplomatic means,” Macron told broadcasters Sunday. “If this is what we want to do, we should not escalate things — neither with words nor actions.”

Some defended Biden, noting that his comment stated the obvious. The most notable Republicans not lambasting Biden are more traditional and anti-Trump Republicans, such as The Bulwark’s Charlie Sykes, who wrote:

By now you know that President Biden made an off-the-cuff, off-script, and apparently unplanned declaration that Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power.”

The moment was electrifying — a sort of “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” moment — until the White House hastily walked it back, insisting that what the president really meant to say was that the butcher of Ukraine should not be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors.

“He was not discussing Putin’s power in Russia, or regime change,” an official said. And with that, an awfully good speech was transformed into a “gaffe.”

Sunday morning take: Biden had it right the first time.

Not all criticism for Biden was political. The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols, in a post titled “Biden’s Comments About Putin Were an Unforced Error, wrote:

The sound that could not be captured by the cameras after Biden spoke was dozens of staffers slapping the palms of their hands against their forehead. Predictably, media in America and elsewhere seized on this statement as if it were some new policy or a NATO war aim and asked if the president of the United States was calling for regime change in, of all places, Moscow.

Biden’s staff lamely offered that the president was saying 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.” The United States, as Representative Jim Himes of Connecticut, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, later told CNN, does not have a new policy of regime change, and has no overt or covert programs aimed at such a goal in Russia. But the news cycle was already in full swing; CNN and others were quoting Biden in their chyrons and prodding their guests to speculate on the president’s meaning.

What Biden was doing, of course, was being Joe Biden. He was speaking for all of us, from the heart. One of the more endearing things about the president—at least for those of us who admire him—is that he has almost no inner monologue and regularly engages in the kind of gaffe where a politician says something that is impolitic but true.

It is hard to blame Biden for giving in to his famous temper after talking to the people who have suffered from Putin’s barbarism. But the words of every world leader matter right now, and none more than those of the president of the United States. We should now let his remark pass for what it was—an outburst—and get back to helping Ukraine save its independence.

AND:

An international crisis requires steadiness and prudence, and though Biden has shown those qualities in spades, his ad-libbing in Warsaw is a reminder that even small slips pose major risks during tense times. It is especially challenging to stay on message in a 24/7 media environment in which far too many commentators and pundits have already shown an unseemly interest in courting a new world war. When John F. Kennedy was making his way through the Cuban missile crisis, he had only to contend with more easily controlled newspapers and three short newscasts each evening. Biden, by comparison, is living with a Greek chorus of millions offering their commentary and advice—some of it breathtakingly reckless.

It is hard to blame Bidhttps://themoderatevoice.com/wp-admin/admin.php?page=wpforms-overviewen for giving in to his famous temper after talking to the people who have suffered from Putin’s barbarism. But the words of every world leader matter right now, and none more than those of the president of the United States. We should now let his remark pass for what it was—an outburst—and get back to helping Ukraine save its independence.

What can be said with certainty is this: Biden said what many Americans — and people all over the world — believe when it comes to Putin and his attempt to give currrent generations a taste of what it was like in 1939.


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