Biden says his Putin comments were fueled by moral outrage, not a U.S. policy change.
WASHINGTON — President Biden on Monday stood by his comment that Vladimir V. Putin should not remain president of Russia, but said it was a personal expression of outrage and not a change in American policy aimed at seeking to remove Mr. Putin from office.
“I was expressing the moral outrage I felt toward this man,” Mr. Biden told reporters, rejecting criticism that he misspoke. He said no one should have interpreted his comments as calling for Mr. Putin’s ouster.
“It’s ridiculous,” he said, clearly irritated at the questions during an event in which he unveiled his 2023 budget. “Nobody believes I was talking about taking down Putin. Nobody believes that.”
“I was expressing my outrage that he shouldn’t remain in power,” he said, “just like you know that bad people shouldn’t continue to do bad things.”
The president’s remarks came two days after he declared during a speech in Warsaw: “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” an ad-libbed comment at the end of his three-day diplomatic blitz in Europe.
It took just minutes for the White House to back away from Mr. Biden’s comments in Warsaw that evening. Reporters had just loaded buses following his speech when an administration official sent an email denying that the president was formally advocating Mr. Putin’s removal.
On Sunday, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken told journalists in Jerusalem that “we do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia or anywhere else, for that matter.”
Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman, said the Kremlin would “continue to closely monitor” any statements made by Biden.
In his first extended comments on the matter, Mr. Biden insisted Monday that he had not “walked back” his comment.
“The last thing I want to do is engage in a land war or a nuclear war with Russia,” Mr. Biden said. “I was expressing my outrage at the behavior of this man. It’s outrageous. It’s outrageous. It’s more an aspiration than anything. He shouldn’t be in power. People like this shouldn’t be ruling countries, but the fact they do doesn’t mean I can’t express my outrage.”
