Secretary of State Antony Blinken Hits the Breaks on Joe Biden, Who Stated Putin “cannot remain in power”
Despite the fact that he himself, along with Joe Biden, advocated for the 2003 invasion of Iraq–which was regime change plain and simple–Blinken states that the US has “no strategy of regime change in Russia or anywhere else.” This comes after Joe Biden went off script (and off his rocker) saying that Putin “cannot remain in power” on Saturday.
From the Daily Mail:
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday that the United States is not looking for ‘regime change’ in Moscow or anywhere else in the world after President Joe Biden said Vladimir Putin ‘cannot remain in power.’
Biden went directly after the Russian autocrat in an emotional speech on Saturday, warning if Putin’s ambitions went unchecked it could lead to decades of war in Europe.
This is a clear call for regime change if ever there was one. Therefore, either Joe Biden is saying that Putin cannot be allowed to remain in power and we will do something about it, or that he cannot be allowed to remain in power but we are too scared to do something about it. This is a dangerous comment. No wonder Blinken is doing damage control.
Speaking to reporters in Jerusalem the next day, Blinken explained ‘As you know, and as you have heard us say repeatedly, we do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia — or anywhere else, for that matter.’
Right. Our efforts in the Middle East just didn’t happen, then? In any case, this further casts doubt on America’s role as leader of NATO under Biden, as you have a secretary of state and a “president” making polar opposite comments, with the prior walking back the latter’s “gaffe.” Our allies are confused, and our adversaries are laughing at us.
Richard Haass, President of the Council of Foreign Relations think tank, also had comments to make about how damaging Biden’s off-script statements are.
In the wake of Biden’s unscripted remark in Warsaw, Council of Foreign Relations President Richard Haass speculated that Blinken should go even further than downplaying the president’s remarks.
He said it may even escalate the autocrat’s brutality in Ukraine ‘because if he believes he has everything to lose then he’ll believe he has nothing to lose.’
‘The comments by [Biden] made a difficult situation more difficult and a dangerous situation more dangerous. That is obvious. Less obvious is how to undo the damage, but I suggest his chief aides reach their counterparts & make clear US prepared to deal with this Russian govt,’ Haass wrote on Twitter.
No one is happy with Biden’s handling of Ukraine and Russia, and no matter what you think we should be doing we can all agree that this is not the play.
