Senior adviser to former President Donald Trump Peter Navarro told Newsmax Monday that attempts from the White House to walk back President Joe Biden's remark this weekend that Russian President Vladimir Putin "cannot remain in power," shows the Russian leader how weak the nation is.
"The simple message is it makes us look even weaker than we already looked because it suggests something in Putin would never put up with, that somebody other than the chief commander is in charge," Navarro said during "Eric Bolling: The Balance" Monday. "They just put [Biden] out, and they bring him back and clean up. Whatever message [leftists inside the White House don't agree with], it's just got to stop. It's killing people literally."
In remarks delivered at the Royal Castle in Poland Saturday, Biden said Putin should not remain in control of Russia.
"A dictator bent on rebuilding an empire will never erase a people's love for liberty. Brutality will never grind down their will to be free. Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia — for free people refuse to live in a world of hopelessness and darkness," Biden said. "We will have a different future — a brighter future rooted in democracy and principle, hope and light, of decency and dignity, of freedom and possibilities. For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power."
White House officials and Secretary of State Antony Blinken immediately went into damage control, insisting the Biden was not calling for regime change in Russia.
"We do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia or anywhere else, for that matter," The New York Times reported Blinken telling journalists while in Jerusalem.
The White House put out a statement to the media to clarify the remark saying, "[Biden was] not discussing Putin's power in Russia, or regime change," NBC News reported the statement read. "[Putin] cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region."
When pressed on the issue of having his initial statement "walked back," Biden responded that he was expressing his personal "moral outrage" to Russia and Putin invading Ukraine.
"The last thing I want to do is engage in a land war or a nuclear war with Russia," the New York Times reported Biden saying to reporters Monday after unveiling his 2023 federal budget. "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."
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