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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In statements and cable news appearances, Biden’s spokespeople and senior officials sought to clarify his remarks, suggesting the president was misunderstood or his words misconstrued.
Biden made the “guess” Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin “will move in” to Ukrainian territory after amassing 100,000 troops along the country’s border. He also suggested that the scale of invasion could merit different responses.
“I think what you’re going to see is that Russia will be held accountable if it invades. And it depends on what it does,” Biden said. “It’s one thing if it’s a minor incursion and then we end up having a fight about what to do and not do, et cetera.”
While the president said Russia would face a “disaster” in the event of a larger attack, he added that splits could emerge among trans-Atlantic allies.
“But it’s very important that we keep everyone in NATO on the same page,” he continued. “And that’s what I’m spending a lot of time doing. And there are differences. There are differences in NATO as to what countries are willing to do depending on what happens — the degree to which they’re able to go.”
Critics said Biden’s words gave Russian President Vladimir Putin a “green light” to attack Ukraine.
The White House quickly issued a strongly worded statement against Russia that touted a collective response.
“President Biden has been clear with the Russian president: If any Russian military forces move across the Ukrainian border, that’s a renewed invasion, and it will be met with a swift, severe, and united response from the United States and our allies,” press secretary Jen Psaki wrote.
While Psaki did not directly mention Biden’s reference to a “minor incursion,” she implied that the president was drawing a distinction between military incursions and indirect cyber or paramilitary warfare, further elaborating in a Fox News interview and press briefing.
“There’s a range of tactics the Russians use, whether it’s the little green men, as they’re called, or it’s cyberattacks. And we will be prepared to respond to that as well,” Psaki told Fox News. “So, we’re prepared for a range of tactics they may use. But if they move their military into Ukraine, we will be responding, and we have a range of preparations for that.”
Psaki insisted that her cable news appearances had nothing to do with clarifying the president’s remarks. “I was already planning to go on Fox News — looking forward to in fact,” she told reporters, batting back questions over the president’s earlier remarks.
Psaki also addressed a tweet by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pushing back against Biden’s suggestion that a Russian attack could divide trans-Atlantic allies in their response.
“It is also true, as President Zelensky has experienced, that there are a range of tactics the Russians use,” she added. “We have been warning about some of those steps including the spreading of misinformation out there, which has been widespread, was widespread in 2014, the use of cybertools, and we also will be ready to respond to that as well and working in lockstep with Ukraine.”
On Thursday, Zelensky said on Twitter that “there are no minor incursions.”
Biden’s comment that future elections could “easily could be illegitimate” required further cleanup.
“It all depends,” Biden had said when asked if he believed the midterm elections would occur fairly without passing Democrats’ voting legislation.
The response was in line with Democrats’ assertions that without the party’s federal elections overhaul, minority voters risk being disenfranchised. But suggesting that the results of midterm races may not be legitimate poured kerosene on Democrats’ claims.
“Lets be clear: @potus was not casting doubt on the legitimacy of the 2022 election,” Psaki tweeted Thursday.
Biden, she stressed, “was explaining that the results would be illegitimate if states do what the former president asked them to do after the 2020 election: toss out ballots and overturn results after the fact.”
But the president responded to several direct questions over the prospect of elections in 2022 being legitimate and fair. And he linked this to the specter of Democrats’ doomed federal election overhaul.
“I’m not going to say it’s going to be legit,” Biden said upon further questioning. “It’s — the increase and the prospect of being illegitimate is in direct proportion to us not being able to get these … reforms passed.”
Hours later, the Democratic Party’s legislative push fell apart in the Senate after failing to garner the votes needed for an elections-rule carveout on the filibuster.
Psaki denied again that Biden was casting doubt on the outcomes of future elections, telling Fox News, “Well, first … I’ve talked to the president a lot about this. And he absolutely is not predicting that the 2022 elections would be illegitimate.”
She said in a tweet that Biden “was making the opposite point: in 2020, a record number of voters turned out in the face of a pandemic, and election officials made sure they could vote and have those votes counted.”
Democrats face a possible bloodbath in the midterm elections, heightening tension over the president’s concerns.
“I don’t know if I’d use those terms,” Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin told CNN when asked about it Thursday.
Still, not everyone appeared prepared to put the issue to bed, with Vice President Harris arguing Thursday morning that inaction places the United States’s “role model” status at risk.
“I’ve met with prime ministers and presidents around the globe, both partners and allies of ours. They are asking what is going on with voting rights in America,” Harris told CBS Mornings. “They look to us as role models of what it means to be a democracy. And they … question whether there is an erosion of our democracy and therefore an erosion of one of the best role models of what a democracy does and can do.”
Biden has drawn criticism for his comments on voting issues before. In a Georgia address this month, the president likened opposition from senators who failed to back Democrats’ federal voting overhaul to segregationists George Wallace and Bull Connor, as well as Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
Democrats have railed against former President Donald Trump’s refusal to acknowledge the results of the 2020 election, opening the president to similar criticism after his comments Wednesday.
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“Instead of hemming and hawing, President Biden could have simply said that America’s elections have been and will continue to be legitimate,” Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska said in a statement responding to the president. “But he didn’t say that, and now his team is lying. The vice president is doubling down while the press secretary is trying to spin it. This isn’t rocket science: Public officials, Republicans and Democrats, should defend public trust in self-government.”
