Former Obama defense secretary: President Biden made Putin gaffe because he’s ‘Irish’
Former Obama defense secretary Leon Panetta offered a new explanation for President Biden’s gaffes made over the weekend.
While overseas, Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power.” The comments were later walked back by the White House.
“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 said.
However, Biden himself defended his comments on Monday, saying that he did not call for regime change despite saying Putin shouldn’t be in power.
“I was expressing my outrage at the behavior of this man,” Biden said, calling the Russian president’s behavior “outrageous” and that his comments about him were “more an aspiration than anything.”
“I can understand his emotional feel about Putin not staying in office. I think a lot of people would probably agree with that. But at this point in the game, you really have to keep your messages very simple and very direct, and I think this created some confusion that wasn’t helpful,” Panetta said during an interview on CNN’s “Newsroom.” “I happen to think that Joe Biden, you know, he’s Irish, really has a great deal of compassion when he sees that people are suffering. And I think it overwhelmed him in the sense of seeing all of the horrors that were resulting from this war.”- READ MORE
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