Biden says he was ‘expressing my outrage’ but not making a policy change when he

“The last part of the speech was talking to Russian people,” he said. “I was communicating this to, not only the Russian people but the whole world. This is … just stating a simple fact that this kind of behavior is totally unacceptable. Totally unacceptable. And the way to deal with it is to strengthen and keep NATO completely united and help Ukraine where we can.”

Biden emphasized that he was speaking from the heart following a meeting with Ukrainian refugees in Warsaw.

“I’d just come from being with those families,” he said, adding, “I make no apologies for it.”

The President also dismissed the suggestion that his remarks might escalate the conflict in Ukraine. Biden said the suggestion that other leaders may take issue with his unscripted remarks during his address in Poland has not weakened NATO.

“NATO has never ever, ever, ever, ever, ever been as strong as it is today,” Biden said.

The improvised comment about Putin wasn’t planned and surprised aides who were watching Biden’s speech on television or at the event site. And the words hadn’t been something Biden raised as potentially including in his speech — previously, US officials were adamant that changing the government in Moscow wasn’t one of their objectives. In closed-door meetings earlier in the week, Biden told fellow leaders at NATO that he did not want to escalate the West’s confrontation with Russia.

Yet his off-the-cuff line did more to pit him directly against Putin than anything so far in the conflict.

‘He’s a butcher’

People who spoke to Biden before and after the speech described him as personally affected after visiting with refugees at the national stadium in Warsaw, where women asked him to pray for the men — husbands, sons and brothers — who had stayed behind to fight.

Directly ahead of the speech, the President had also been briefed by officials about a series of missile strikes on a fuel depot in Lviv, Ukraine, a western city not far from the Polish border. The timing seemed hardly coincidental as Biden was visiting Warsaw.

Despite the Biden administration’s quick walk-back of the comments about Putin’s power, they obscured the rest of Biden’s speech, which focused on reassuring NATO allies the US would come to their defense if Putin pushes further into Europe. White House aides had been working on writing the speech for days, including in the hours leading up to the address.

Vinay Reddy, Biden’s top speechwriter, and Mike Donilon, his senior adviser who helps craft the President’s major speeches, both traveled to Europe with Biden and were involved in writing the speech.

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