Administration officers and lawmakers pressured on Sunday that the United States was not searching for regime change in Russia over President Vladimir V. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine regardless of President Biden’s remark that the Russian chief “cannot remain in power.”
Capping a sequence of diplomatic summits in Europe, Mr. Biden delivered a speech on Saturday in Poland in regards to the struggle in Ukraine. An apparently ad-libbed comment on the conclusion of his handle — “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power” — rapidly eclipsed the remainder of his speech.
Government officers — from the White House to senior lawmakers on Capitol Hill — have been fast to say that the comment was not supposed as a name for a regime change, underscoring the precarious effort to punish Russia for attacking Ukraine whereas avoiding an escalation within the struggle.
On Sunday, U.S. officers have been nonetheless making an attempt to stroll again and make clear the remark.
“We do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia or anywhere else, for that matter,” Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken advised journalists in Jerusalem after assembly with Israel’s international minister, Yair Lapid. “In this case, as in any case, it’s up to the people of the country in question. It’s up to the Russian people.”
Julianne Smith, the U.S. ambassador to NATO, advised CNN’s “State of the Union” that Mr. Biden’s remarks have been “a principled human reaction” to the Ukrainian refugees he had met in Warsaw. But, she insisted, “the U.S. does not have a policy of regime change in Russia. Full stop.”
Senior lawmakers maintained an analogous place on Sunday, with Senator Jim Risch of Idaho, the highest Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, saying he wished Mr. Biden “would stay on script.”
Mr. Risch mentioned that even suggesting regime change would inevitably “cause a huge problem,” calling the comment a “horrendous gaffe” in an in any other case good speech.
“The administration has done everything they can to stop escalating — there’s not a whole lot more you can do to escalate than to call for a regime change,” he advised CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“I’ll walk it back right now — that is not the policy of the United States of America,” he added. “Please, Mr. President, stay on script.”
Senator Rob Portman, Republican of Ohio, mentioned on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the remark “plays into the hands of the Russian propagandists and plays into the hands of Vladimir Putin,” although he described the speech as “very strong, despite the ad-lib at the end.”
The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, echoed feedback from the White House.
“It is up to the Russian people to determine who is going to be in power in the Kremlin,” he advised CNN.
Representative Michael McCaul of Texas, the highest Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, mentioned that “the fact is, anytime the United States has said — spoke out for a regime change, it hasn’t worked out so well.”
“I know it was off the cuff, but whatever the president says, it carries a lot of weight,” Mr. McCaul advised CNN’s “State of the Union.” He mentioned the comment threatened to overshadow the push to ship extra navy help and different assist to Ukraine in its battle towards Russia.