Former Defense Secretary and CIA Director Leon Panetta chided President Joe Biden for an off-the-cuff call for Russian President Vladimir Putin to be removed from power.
Biden, while in Poland over the weekend, said, “For God’s sake, this man [Putin] cannot remain in power,” which set off a flurry of damage control efforts from others within the administration. Shortly thereafter, a White House official clarified, “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.”
BIDEN FACES COMPLAINTS HE EMBOLDENED RUSSIA BY MAINLY SAYING WHAT HE WOULDN’T DO
Panetta, 83, who was the secretary of defense from 2011-2013 under the Obama administration, conceded that the president probably had seen “the horrors that have been unleashed on Ukrainian people as a result of Putin” and that “a lot of people would probably agree with” his sentiment in a Monday interview on CNN. “But at this point in the game, you really have to keep your messages very simple and very direct, and I think this created some confusion that wasn’t helpful,” he said.
The former defense secretary went on to acknowledge that “seeing all of the horrors that were resulting from this war” likely “overwhelmed him” and that he understood “why he said it,” but he added, “At the same time, when you’re president of the United States, you just have to be disciplined to make sure you don’t make comments that ultimately have to be clarified by the White House.”
Around the time of Panetta’s comments, Biden reiterated his stance to reporters at the White House.
“I’m not walking any back. The fact of the matter is I was expressing the moral outrage I felt,” the president explained. “But I want to make it clear: I wasn’t then, nor am I now, articulating a policy change. I was expressing moral outrage that I feel. I make no apologies for it.”
The president, during his trip overseas, also called the Russian leader a “butcher,” and he has previously called Putin a “war criminal.”
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The U.S. government believes war crimes have been committed by the Russian military against the Ukrainian people during the four and a half weeks since Russia invaded Ukraine. With no end immediately in sight, the military announced on Monday that it will deploy six naval aircraft and 240 personnel to Germany.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby noted that these aircraft will not be “used against Russian forces in Ukraine”; rather, the point of the deployment “is in keeping with our efforts to bolster NATO’s deterrence and defense capabilities along that eastern flank.”
