American officials scrambled to clarify Biden's suggestion that Putin 'cannot remain in power.'

[Eugene]

Source: New York Times

American officials scrambled to clarify Biden’s suggestion that Putin ‘cannot remain in power.’

March 27, 2022, 1:21 p.m. ET
Emily Cochrane, Chris Cameron and Lara Jakes

Administration officials and lawmakers stressed on Sunday that the United States was not seeking regime change in Russia over President Vladimir V. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine despite President Biden’s comment that the Russian leader “cannot remain in power.”

Capping a series of diplomatic summits in Europe, Mr. Biden delivered a speech on Saturday in Poland about the war in Ukraine. An apparently ad-libbed remark at the conclusion of his address — “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power” — quickly eclipsed the rest of his speech.

Government officials — from the White House to senior lawmakers on Capitol Hill — were quick to say that the remark was not intended as a call for a regime change, underscoring the precarious effort to punish Russia for attacking Ukraine while avoiding an escalation in the war.

On Sunday, U.S. officials were still trying to walk back and clarify the comment.

“We do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia or anywhere else, for that matter,” Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken told journalists in Jerusalem after meeting with Israel’s foreign minister, Yair Lapid. “In this case, as in any case, it’s up to the people of the country in question. It’s up to the Russian people.”

-snip-

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/27/world/europe/biden-putin-speech-reaction.html

Non-paywalled link: url-share

[Me.]

1. Of Course We Want A Regime Change

How many people should he be allowed to murder? And what's good for the goose is good for the gander. He wanted to control who headed our country, now we should have the same opportunity.