White House press secretary Jen Psaki claimed Monday that the Biden administration is working to “reduce the tension” caused by apparent nuclear threats made by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Putin put Russia’s nuclear capabilities on high alert over the weekend and previously threatened Western nations with grave consequences should they militarily intervene in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which Psaki told reporters at the White House was “provocative rhetoric.”
She claimed that Putin’s threats are “dangerous, add to the risk of miscalculation, should be avoided, and we’ll not indulge in it.”
Psaki added that the White House is “assessing President Putin’s directive, and at this time, we soon see no reason to change our own alert levels.”
Later in the briefing, Psaki told reporters that the No. 1 way the United States is actively working to “reduce the possibility of nuclear war” is by “not escalating our own rhetoric.”
“We have not changed our own posture,” she closed. “What we are trying to do is reduce the tension, the tenor of the rhetoric, and make clear that we have seen this pattern in the past, which is posing threats or suggesting through misinformation of sorts that there are threats posed to President Putin in Russia that don’t exist.”
Earlier in the day, President Joe Biden himself responded simply, “No,” when asked if he thought nuclear war with Russia is a realistic possibility.
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You can watch Monday’s briefing in full below.
