Biden Seen Holding Cheat Sheets Titled 'Tough Putin Q&A' at Monday Presser
01:45 GMT 29.03.2022 (Updated: 04:30 GMT 29.03.2022)
© REUTERS / Slawomir Kaminski/AGENCJA WYBORC
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President Joe Biden, speaking on Saturday in Warsaw, Poland, said that Russian President Vladimir Putin "cannot remain in power". Later, the White House had to clarify that Biden was referring to Putin's "control" of neighbouring regions and wasn't calling for regime change in Russia.
On Monday, President Biden was spotted using cheat sheets while speaking to reporters at the White House during an unscripted Q&A about his recent controversial statement in Warsaw.
Several possible questions by reporters can be read in the papers, including "If you weren't advocating for regime change, what did you mean? Can you clarify?"
"I was expressing the moral outrage I felt towards the actions of this man. I was not articulating a change in policy", the canned answer says.
Nevertheless, the president said he wasn't going to apologise as he wasn't then or now "articulating a policy change", only "expressing moral outrage".
Joe Biden needs "cheat sheet" notes to answer simple questions. pic.twitter.com/xR3nAdakmv
— Brick Suit (@Brick_Suit) March 29, 2022
When questioned further by PBS reporter Lisa Desjardins over the possible consequences of such ambiguity, the president repeated his statements from several days ago in a confusing and convoluted manner.
"It's more an aspiration than anything. He shouldn't be in power", he said. "People like this shouldn't be ruling countries, but they do. The fact is they do, but it doesn't mean I can't express my outrage about it".
At the end of Biden's visit to Poland where he met with President Andrzej Duda, the US president delivered a speech at the Royal Castle in Warsaw and addressed the current situation in Ukraine.
"This man cannot remain in power", he said, referring to Putin, who started a special military operation to "demilitarise" and "de-Nazify" Ukraine on 24 February.
A member of Biden's office later explained that "the president's point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbours or the region", and Biden "was not discussing Putin's power in Russia, or regime change".
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