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President Biden appeared to contradict a previous statement from the White House claiming he was not discussing Putin’s power in Russia when he said the Russian president “cannot remain in power.”
Biden was asked by several reporters during a Monday press briefing at the White House to address his comment, “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” which he said of Putin at the conclusion of a Saturday speech in front of the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland.
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President Joe Biden answers questions after introducing his budget request for fiscal year 2023 in the State Dining Room of the White House on March 28, 2022, in Washington, D.C.
(Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
“The President’s point was 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,” a White House official told Fox News Digital shortly after the conclusion of the speech.
While he repeatedly maintained that his comment about Putin was not intended to indicate a shift from one that does not support regime change in Russia, Biden said Monday that his comments were “more an aspiration than anything,” and that people like Putin “shouldn’t be running countries.”
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“He shouldn’t be in power,” Biden said of his Russian counterpart during comments at the White House. “People like this shouldn’t be ruling countries, but they do, in fact. They do. But, doesn’t mean I can’t express my outrage about it.”
President Joe Biden announces his Budget for Fiscal Year 2023 in the State Dinning Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on March 28, 2022.
(Photo by NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images)
“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, which is just brutality,” Biden also said.
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“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,” he added.
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The White House did not immediately respond to request for comment.
Fox News’ Adam Shaw contributed to this report.