CNN Host Don Lemon downplayed concerns about President Joe Biden’s problematic remarks about Vladimir Putin in Poland over the weekend, calling the controversy “media-manufactured” and arguing that Biden was saying “what most of the world feels about Vladimir Putin.”
Speaking on “CNN Newsroom” Monday, Lemon blamed the media for interpreting Biden’s off-the-cuff remark that Putin “cannot remain in power” as a call for regime change and said that he did not interpret it that way, even though the White House rushed to walk back the comments immediately after the speech.
“My interpretation of this, as I said over the weekend, right after the president said it, being here in the region in Ukraine — the President is saying exactly what most of the world feels about Vladimir Putin,” Lemon said. “Now, he did not, in that speech, say that Vladimir Putin should be removed or we’re going take him out of power. He said this man should not remain in power. What person in their right mind thinks that someone who bombs innocent people, children, a country that is in unprovoked war should remain in power? Now, if he had said on the other said of that, so I think we should do something to take him out of office, that would be a different thing.”
“Quite honestly, I think this is a media-manufactured story,” he added. “And the media — it’s in the media’s interpretation.”
CNN's @DonLemon defends Biden: "He did not end that speech saying that Vladimir Putin should be removed or we’re going ta take him out of power. He said this man should not remain in power … this is a media-manufactured story," "blown out of proportion" pic.twitter.com/6gSWQvdQuF
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) March 28, 2022
“I think we should ease off a little bit because that’s not what the president said. He did not say regime change. I think that was the interpretation,” Lemon continued. “Again, the generals we had on our air, people who are familiar with foreign policy, [said] perhaps the president should be a little more precise with his language. I will give him that. But I think to blow this out of proportion to say the president was doing some thing about making a regime change, I think it’s out of proportion to what is going on. We’re in the middle of a war…who would think he should be in power at this moment? So, I think that we need to take a step back and stop trying to make it into something that it is not.”
Lemon doubled down on his comments on his own program Monday night. “The president is saying exactly what most of the world feels about Vladimir Putin,” Lemon reiterated, while describing the destruction in Ukraine. He also expressed surprise that the White House walked back Biden’s comments in the first place. “I was surprised this weekend when they did do that. I think calling someone a war criminal is much harsher than saying they shouldn’t be in power,” Lemon said, referring to previous comments Biden made on several occasions.
Despite Lemon’s comments, the White House was forced to walk back Biden’s remarks shortly after he made them at a speech in Warsaw, Poland, on Saturday. “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” Biden said as he closed his speech, in what appeared to many observers to be a call for regime change. The White House quickly issued a statement saying the remarks were not a call for regime change.
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Source: Dailywire
