President Joe Biden’s top aides spent the first day of his second year in office wending through hours of cleanup that showed no sign of disappearing.

Biden took close to 200 questions from reporters during a Wednesday news conference, but it was his answers on two issues that sparked immediate outcry. The first was Biden’s statement that a “minor incursion” by Russia into Ukraine might prompt a divided response from U.S. allies. The second came after the president cast doubt on the legitimacy of future elections in the country if Democrats’ voting legislation failed to pass.

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