President Joe Biden’s communication team is being faced with one public relations crisis after another lately, as the president’s gaffes about the ongoing conflict in Ukraine are becoming increasingly consequential.
While Biden has always been gaffe-prone, his remarks began to raise serious concerns all the way back in January when he said that a “minor incursion” by Russia into Ukraine would prompt a different response than a full-blown blitzkrieg. This comment arguably made Russian President Vladimir Putin lick his chops and may even have accelerated the timeline for the ongoing invasion.
Fast forward to this month, when Biden gaffed and told soldiers that they would be sent to Ukraine. Of course, the White House needed to make it clear that this was false, as it would have indicated that World War III was imminent.
“The president has been clear we are not sending U.S. troops to Ukraine and there is no change in that position,” they told Fox News on Friday.
Then, while giving a speech on Saturday in Poland, the president made another damning comment implying that the United States desires regime change in Russia when he said, “For God Sake’s, this man cannot remain in power.”
Biden defended himself when talking with reporters on Monday, and he was intentionally ambiguous.
“I was expressing my outrage. He shouldn’t remain in power, just like bad people shouldn’t continue to do bad things. But it doesn’t mean we have a fundamental policy to do anything to take Putin down in any way,” Biden said, according to NBC News.
“I’m not walking anything back,” he contradicted. “The fact of the matter is, I was expressing the moral outrage I felt toward the way Putin is dealing and the actions of this man, which is just brutality.”
Related: White House Alters Transcript to Cover for Kamala Harris’ Stupidity
As PJ Media’s Robert Spencer pointed out, these constant clarifications and walk-backs can have dangerous consequences.
Putin is not paying attention to White House clarifications after Biden says something provocative; he is only paying attention to Biden’s original comments. The White House communications team is likely in constant panic mode, trying to keep their agenda on course amid these numerous off-the-cuff remarks.
Honestly, Biden needs to stick to the teleprompter and prepared statements for the sake of national security. These blunders could distract from the real issues. And a temperamental figure like Putin may decide to take radical action based on a comment that is not in agreement with actual United States foreign policy.
Biden shouldn’t be giving Putin any excuses to further his inhumane assault on the nation of Ukraine. His communications team can only do so much to fix things after the fact, especially on such a fragile matter.
