US President Joe Biden said at a press conference following the NATO summit in Washington that he sees no point in allowing Ukraine to strike deep into Russia with Western weapons. Broadcast of the conference was conducted on YouTube.
“If he had the ability to strike Moscow, the Kremlin, would it make sense? No, it wouldn’t,” Biden said, referring to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. He added that he was following the advice of Pentagon officials and the intelligence community on the matter.
The US President added that decisions on how far into Russia Kyiv can strike are made “on a daily basis” depending on the situation in the combat zone.
Biden also responded to a question regarding his willingness to negotiate with Vladimir Putin. He said he “sees no compelling reason” for such a conversation at this time, adding that he “is not prepared to talk to Putin unless Putin is prepared to change his behavior.”
At the same time, the American president stressed that he is ready to communicate “with any leader who wants to talk, including if Putin calls me and wants to talk.” He said that the last time he called the Russian president was to discuss a treaty on nuclear arms control in space, but “it did not lead to anything.”
However, it was not Biden’s statements that attracted the media and viewers’ attention, but the reservations he made. Handing over the floor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the American leader introduced him as “President Putin,” although he soon corrected himself, adding that Zelensky “will defeat Putin.”
The 81-year-old US president made his second mistake when answering a question regarding Vice President Kamala Harris. A Reuters correspondent asked whether Harris might defeat former President Donald Trump in the election if Biden himself dropped out of the presidential race. In response, Biden statedthat he “would not have chosen Vice President Trump as his vice president if he believed she was unfit to be president.”
At the end of the press conference, Biden was asked to comment on the slip of the tongue, noting that Trump was using it to mock the president’s age. “Listen to him,” the US leader said and left the stage.
Biden’s age and his participation in the upcoming presidential election have been actively discussed in recent weeks – following the debate between Biden and Trump on June 27. CNN viewers called Trump the winner, the media and commentators noted that Biden had significantly worsened his chances of re-election, and the Democrats started discussing replacing the current president with a younger candidate.
Earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal reported that Biden’s closest advisers have been aggressively monitoring his schedule, personal contacts, and travel for more than a year in an effort to minimize his age-related blunders, based on interviews with two dozen current and former administration officials, lawmakers, and Democratic donors.
That “silo mentality” meant Biden’s “terrible performance” in the debate with Trump stunned not only members of his own party but also some White House staffers who lack frequent access to the president, the newspaper’s sources said. Many donors and lawmakers told the WSJ they felt misled and worried that few in the party had the courage to tell Biden personally that it was time to go.
