What was the “gaffe” when Biden said Putin “cannot remain in power” in his speech in Poland on Saturday? It’s not like Biden said “Putin has 48 hours to turn himself in or we’re going to launch an airstrike on the Kremlin” or “Putin will be met with fire and fury the likes of which the world has never seen before.” He just said the asshole’s time should be up one way or another and asked the Russian people to rise up against him. “You the Russian people are not our enemy. I refuse to believe that you welcome the killing of innocent children and grandparents. Or that you accept hospitals, schools, maternity wards – for God’s sake – being pummeled with Russian missiles and bombs,” Biden said, imploring ordinary Russians to take action against the brutal regime that rules over them, not announcing a Navy SEAL Team 6 mission to eliminate their President.
On Sunday in Jerusalem, Secretary of State Tony Blinken clarified, saying “We do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia, or anywhere else for that matter,” adding “It’s up to the Russian people,” but again was that really a clarification or a reaffirmation of Biden’s words?
Anyway, would it really be such a bad thing if a rogue Russian military officer took a suitcase bomb did what Lindsey Graham asked earlier this month in a much more specific “gaffe”?