Biden says comment on Putin doesn’t represent policy change

U.S. President Joe Biden says he makes no apologies for calling for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ouster, but he says he was expressing his “moral outrage,” not a new U.S. government policy.

Biden’s comments on Monday come after he said of Putin: “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.” Biden made the initial comment over the weekend while in Poland. His administration spent the next 48 hours saying the U.S. government policy was not to support regime change in Russia after its invasion of Ukraine.

“I was expressing the moral outrage I felt toward this man,” Biden said Monday. “I wasn’t articulating a policy change.”

He added: “I’m not walking anything back.”