"Can't remain in power" vs. asking for a regime change

Pres. Biden goes off-script; the world takes notice

In an ad-libbed part of a speech given this weekend in Warsaw, Poland, Pres. Biden said of the despot Putin, whose troops, guns, and bombs are decimating the sovereign nation of Ukraine:

“For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.”

Rather quickly, White House spokespeople said Biden was not, in fact, calling for regime change when, in fact, it sounded precisely as if he was doing precisely that. I mean, “cannot remain in power” could be a rhetorical flourish, I suppose, but if you’ll watch the video, while that line might not have been scripted, it was not ad-libbed.

Still: Sec. of State Antony Blinken quickly said that the U.S. has no strategy to move a regime change along, and French Pres. Emmanuel Macron called for more careful, less inflammatory language.

Earlier this month, after floating this idea on one of those Fox shows not worth mentioning, Sen. Lindsay Graham of the Televised Meltdown said on Twitter:

In addition, it is interesting to see how language flows in and around the idea of a world war (Has it started? Are we in?) and the U.S.’s role in protecting a democracy other than our own.

Personally? I respect so much the careful movements of diplomacy. But this is a hard thing to watch:

And so:

and: