Senator Jim Risch (R-ID) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that President Joe Biden’s speech on Saturday in Warsaw, in which he endorsed regime change in Russia, by saying President Vladimir Putin could not remain in power was a “horrendous gaffe.”
Risch said, “That’s a complex relationship when you’re dealing with 30 countries and trying to bring them all together. It was important that the president go there. He gave a good speech at the end, but as you pointed out already, there was a horrendous gaffe right at the end of it. I wish he would stay on script. Whoever wrote that speech did a good job for him. But my gosh, I wish they would keep him on script.”
He added, “I think most people who don’t deal in the lane of foreign relations don’t realize those nine words that he uttered would cause the kind of eruption that they did. Any time you say or even, as he did, suggest that the policy was regime change, it’s going to cause a huge problem. This 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 regime change. The White House tried to walk it back immediately. Tony Blinken, the secretary of state, tried to walk it back immediately. I’ll walk it back right now. That is not the policy of the United States of America. Please, Mr. President, stay on script.”
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