WaPo columnist says Biden's Putin ad-lib 'wasn't a gaffe,' suggests White House cut Biden's mic

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Biden comments on Putin raise questions about White House’s messaging

'Fox & Friends' co-hosts and White House correspondent Peter Doocy on the White House attempting to clarify the president's remarks on Russian regime change

A Washington Post columnist suggested Tuesday that the White House cut President Biden's mic when he strays from his intended remarks, while also arguing that his "ad-lib" about Russian President Vladimir Putin during a speech in Warsaw, Poland "wasn't a gaffe." 

Columnist Eugene Robinson wrote that Biden was right when he uttered his unscripted remark that Putin "cannot remain in power," but noted that the president likely shouldn't have "implied that the United States seeks to oust Russian President Vladimir Putin from office." 

President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the debt ceiling during an event in the State Dining Room of the White House, Monday, Oct. 4 in Washington.  (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

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"Let me further stipulate that perhaps a White House sound engineer should cut Biden’s microphone whenever he strays from prepared remarks," Robinson wrote. 

The columnist said Biden was "overly passionate" and "insufficiently diplomatic," but that it was "hardly" a massive gaffe. Robinson went on to detail the crimes Putin is continuing to commit against Ukrainians. He said other world leaders were "surely thinking."

The author noted the White House's clarification of Biden's comments, which argued that Biden was not calling for a regime change. 

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Russian President Vladimir Putin has attempted to silence non-state media.    (Yuri Kochetkov/Pool Photo via AP) (Yuri Kochetkov/Pool Photo via AP)

"But while it will never be possible for the United States and its European allies to ignore Russia, it is hard to imagine how Biden and future presidents will be able to constructively deal with Putin," Robinson said. 

After the White House walked back Biden's original comments about Putin, the president said on Monday that people like Putin "shouldn't be running countries."

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"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," the White House previously said after the president's speech in Warsaw. 

U.S. President Joe Biden, flanked by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan and senior aide Steve Ricchetti, holds a meeting on infrastructure with labor and business leaders at the White House in Washington, U.S. July 22, 2021. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst  (REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst )

"I was expressing my outrage at the behavior of this man," the president said on Monday, adding that the comments were "more an aspiration than anything."

"I'm not walking anything back. 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, which is just brutality," Biden continued.