Washington Post: White House Keeps Walking Back ‘Ad-Libs’ from Joe Biden, Especially on Foreign Policy

President Joe Biden’s employees within his administration keep “walking back” his policy positions, the Democrat-allied Washington Post wrote on Tuesday.

Biden, who has made several declarative foreign policy statements in front of the press, has been frequently overridden by members of his staff in recent weeks. The Post has finally caught onto their frequent revocations by noting the administration’s numerous press statements of clarification.

Speaking Monday in Tokyo, President Biden sent his aides scrambling when, deviating from decades of carefully crafted policy, he declared that the United States would defend Taiwan militarily if China attacked it.

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Biden’s team was quick to claim that the administration’s policy had not changed. But the moment was reminiscent of one two months prior, in March, when Biden ended a speech in Warsaw by ad-libbing the line that Vladmir Putin cannot remain in power as Russia’s president — which his advisers again raced to walk back.

Which was reminiscent of the moment two months before that, in January, when Biden seemed to imply that the United States might tolerate “a minor incursion” by Russia into Ukraine — an assertion both Biden and his aides clambered to clarify.

The revoked presidential policy positions have some Republicans alleging the “walked backed” statements are a result of frequent gaffes made by Biden.

“Another clean-up job from the Biden spin room. He cannot go overseas without saying something that his team has to walk back minutes later. It’s reckless and embarrassing,” Tommy Hicks, a co-chair of the Republican National Committee, tweeted Monday.

Others, such as outgoing establishment member Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), say Biden is not in control of his own policy positions. “Does anyone at the #WhiteHouse actually respect the words of @POTUS? Biden said we would defend #Taiwan, and the staff AGAIN walks back the Presidents own words! He needs to fire everyone who does this.”

The White House has a different explanation for the “walked back” policy decisions. Biden’s spokesman Andrew Bates told the Post the frequent corrections only come after the president “speaks directly and candidly” with the American people.

Bates claimed the corrections are not the opinion of Biden’s employees but rather a sole result of Biden’s felt “need to add context to something he said” to avoid confusion from his direct and candid form of communication.

The president’s communication style and frequent retractions have the majority of voters doubting his mental aptitude. An April poll found that 53 percent of voters have “doubts” about Biden’s mental ability. Sixty-two percent said Biden is not fit to be president because he is too old. Sixty-three percent of Democrats said the president is mentally fit.

Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter and Gettr @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.