Not long into an overseas trip, a comment President Joe Biden made to the 82nd Airborne Division in Poland raised eyebrows. As he celebrated the “backbone” of the Ukrainian people in resisting a Russian invasion, he added, “And you’re going to see when you’re there.”
“Some of you have been there. You’re going to see — you’re going to see women, young people … standing in the middle of, in front of a damn tank, just saying, ‘I’m not leaving. I’m holding my ground,’” Biden continued. “They’re incredible. But they take a lot of inspiration from us.”
Over the course of a few days, the White House had to clarify whether Biden favored regime change in Moscow after he concluded a speech by saying Russian President Vladimir Putin could not remain in power. After Biden said the United States would respond “in kind” if Putin used chemical weapons, national security adviser Jake Sullivan assured reporters that did not mean America would ever use chemical weapons itself.
Biden’s words to the 82nd Airborne were interpreted by some observers to mean a deepening of Washington’s involvement in the war. He had repeatedly said that U.S. troops weren’t going to Ukraine and wouldn’t be fighting against Russian forces themselves. American military personnel were in the region to reinforce NATO’s eastern flank, not to engage in hostilities the president had more than once warned could lead to “World War III.”
“We were talking about helping train the troops in — that are — the Ukrainian troops that are in Poland,” Biden later explained to reporters at the White House. “That’s what the context [was].”
“Ukrainian soldiers in Poland [are] interacting on a regular basis with U.S. troops, and that’s what the president was referring to,” a White House official concurred. But not everyone was on the same page.
“I do not believe we are in the process of currently training military forces from Ukraine in Poland,” Gen. Tod Wolters, the head of U.S. European Command, subsequently testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee. “There are liaisons that are there that are being given advice, and that’s different than I think you’re referring to with respect to training.”
Reporters later pointed out that Biden’s statement also contradicted what the White House had previously told them about the U.S. training Ukrainian troops outside of Ukraine. “Well, as I said, there is regular interaction between Ukrainian soldiers in Poland and the U.S. troops that the president saw on the trip,” replied communications director Kate Bedingfield. “There’s … no further detail that I can add on that, except to say that there is regular interaction.”
Biden’s statement about Putin remaining in office has also required extensive cleanup. “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” he said in a major speech from Poland. The remark did not appear in the prepared text and was later described as an ad-lib. “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 said shortly afterward.
The White House has since tried to frame this as the president’s personal opinion about Putin rather than official U.S. policy. This has included Biden himself. “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 — just — just the brutality of it,” he told reporters after unveiling his budget request for the next fiscal year.
“The president has been incredibly clear about this. He is not advocating for a policy of regime change,” Bedingfield said at a White House press briefing days after the initial speech. “What he said a couple of days ago was a statement of personal moral outrage, but we do not have a formal policy of regime change.”
“When a president speaks, no matter how good or bad he is, people listen,” Biden said in a speech during the 2020 campaign. (He nearly uttered profanity in the following sentence.) Candidate Biden made former President Donald Trump’s language — often insulting, imprecise, and incendiary — a significant issue, noting that presidential rhetoric can start wars. As Russia’s war in Ukraine rages, Biden’s way with words has come under renewed scrutiny.
“Did your words complicate matters?” a reporter asked Biden. He bristled at the suggestion. “I’m not walking anything back,” he said.
