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Biden says he was ‘expressing my outrage’ but not making a policy change when he said Putin ‘cannot remain in power‘

President Joe Biden reiterated on Monday that he was not announcing a change in US policy when he had said that Russian President Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power” — a remark that caught American and international officials off-guard, sending the White House into clean-up mode over the weekend.”I just was expressing my outrage. He shouldn’t remain in power, just like, you know, bad people shouldn’t continue to do bad things,” Biden said in response to a question from CNN’s Kaitlan Collins at the White House. “But it doesn’t mean we have a fundamental policy to do anything to take Putin down in any way.”Two days after Biden’s return from Europe, the improvised comment made at the end of an address in Warsaw about Putin — “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power” — has hovered over the White House.

The White House and Biden have repeatedly tried to downplay the remark. The administration and allies say Biden wasn’t calling for regime change to remove Putin from power. Rather, they argue that Biden was saying Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over neighboring nations.

“I was talking to the Russian people,” Biden said on Monday at the White House when asked by Collins why he ad-libbed the line.

“The last part of the speech was talking to Russian people,” he said. “I was communicating this to, not only the Russian people but the whole world. This is … just stating a simple fact that this kind of behavior is totally unacceptable. Totally unacceptable. And the way to deal with it is to strengthen and keep NATO completely united and help Ukraine where we can.”Biden emphasized that he was speaking from the heart following a meeting with Ukrainian refugees in Warsaw.

“I’d just come from being with those families,” he said, adding, “I make no apologies for it.”The President also dismissed the suggestion that his remarks might escalate the conflict in Ukraine. Biden said the suggestion that other leaders may take issue with his unscripted remarks during his address in Poland has not weakened NATO.”NATO has never ever, ever, ever, ever, ever been as strong as it is today,” Biden said.The improvised comment about Putin wasn’t planned and surprised aides who were watching Biden’s speech on television or at the event site. And the words hadn’t been something Biden raised as potentially including in his speech — previously, US officials were adamant that changing the government in Moscow wasn’t one of their objectives. In closed-door meetings earlier in the week, Biden told fellow leaders at NATO that he did not want to escalate the West’s confrontation with Russia.Yet his off-the-cuff line did more to pit him directly against Putin than anything so far in the conflict.