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After nearly half a century in public office, President Joe Biden has made more than his fair share of verbal slip-ups. From the “slight Indian accent” incident, to the “you ain’t black” fiasco, to “poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids,” even Biden himself has admitted to being a “gaffe machine.” But typically, the fallout for his errant comments is political, not nuclear.
Wrapping up his four-day swing through Belgium and Poland, Biden delivered a 30-minute address in Warsaw outlining the struggle between democracy and autocracy, detailing the next phase of NATO and the United States’ response to Russia’s continued invasion of Ukraine, and condemning the “brutality” of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Then he went off-script.
“For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” Biden concluded. His audience—comprised primarily of Polish dignitaries and lawmakers—responded with tepid applause, unclear if they had just witnessed the president of the United States calling for regime change in Moscow.
Less than an hour later, Biden’s staff tried to make clear that was not what had just transpired. “The President’s point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region,” read a statement blasted out to reporters and attributed only to a White House official. “He was not discussing Putin’s power in Russia, or regime change.”
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