Thiessen: Biden walking back regime change comment due to fear of provoking Russia
Fox News contributor Marc Thiessen on President Biden denying he is calling for regime change in Russia.
We don’t hear from our president very often. Joe Biden is frequently vacationing in Delaware or dodging the media outside the White House. But then when he does speak, it’s to terrify the American people and send them scrambling for the nearest bomb shelter.
Over the weekend, the president made quite a whoopsie on the national stage. Speaking at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, President Biden ad libbed "For God’s sake, this man [Russia’s president Vladimir Putin] cannot remain in power."
President Biden delivers a speech at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland, Saturday, March 26, 2022. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek) (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
As I tell my small children, there are things that we think but do not say aloud. "Yes, we all see that man urinating in Midtown, no need to point and draw attention to yourself. That man can be an erratic menace who happens to have the world’s largest collection of nuclear warheads," or something to that effect.
It took less than an hour for the White House to double back on the president’s assessment. As Mary Kay Linge reported in the New York Post "45 minutes later, an unnamed White House official rushed to tell the president’s traveling press pool that Biden didn’t really mean it.
As I tell my small children, there are things that we think but do not say aloud.
"The president’s point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region," the official said as Biden’s motorcade made its way to Warsaw Chopin Airport for his flight back to Washington. "He was not discussing Putin’s power in Russia, or regime change."
President Joe Biden meets with Ukrainian refugees and humanitarian aid workers during a visit to PGE Narodowy Stadium, Saturday, March 26, 2022, in Warsaw. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Ach, well, at least he didn’t imply American troops would soon enter the conflict. Except when he did, just two days prior, when he was talking to American soldiers and said, "You’re going to see when you’re there, and some of you have been there, you’re gonna see — you’re gonna see women, young people standing in the middle in front of a damned tank just saying, ‘I’m not leaving, I’m holding my ground.’"
FILE – President Joe Biden boards Air Force One to fly to Warsaw, at Rzeszow-Jasionka Airport, in Jasionka, near Rzeszow, Poland, March 25, 2022. (REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein)
The White House again had to clean up on Aisle Biden. "The president has been clear we are not sending U.S. troops to Ukraine and there is no change in that position," a Biden spokesman said.
I hope Putin heard that correction! And the other one too.
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Yes, that’s pretty bad. But the American people, at home thousands of miles away from the conflict in Ukraine can be sure that their president isn’t just going to accept things getting increasingly difficult for the citizens of his country, right?
Earlier this month, the president released a statement blaming the inflation pinch Americans are feeling on Putin. In a statement, Biden said "Today’s inflation report is a reminder that Americans’ budgets are being stretched by price increases and families are starting to feel the impacts of Putin’s price hike."
Nice try. But the price increases had begun far before Putin’s invasion.
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And last week, after meetings with G-7 and NATO members in Belgium, Biden said "With regard to food shortages, yes we did talk about food shortages. And it’s going to be real."
We’re poking a bear sitting on an arsenal of nukes, American troops may soon be in Ukraine and your family might not have anything to eat. Comforting!
FILE – Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council in Yerevan, Armenia. (Shutterstock)
Americans generally like hearing from their president. He is supposed to be a reassuring voice for us all. But in the case of Biden, the president’s words produce the opposite reaction. The president veers off-script a lot and his impulsive words terrify instead of console.
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At a time of strife, we need our leader to be clear-headed and cautious, particularly in his language. What we have instead is a president unwilling to take responsibility for the country’s problems while simultaneously saying irresponsible things on the world’s stage.
It’s a dangerous moment for America and for the world. The president should recognize that and shush.
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