Richard Haass: “The comments by President Biden made a difficult situation more difficult and a dangerous situation more dangerous. That is obvious. Less obvious is how to undo the damage, but I suggest his chief aides reach their counterparts and make clear US prepared to deal with this Russian government.”
Washington Post: “White House officials were adamant the remark was not a sign of a policy change, but they did concede it was just the latest example of Biden’s penchant for stumbling off message. And like many of his unintended comments, they came at the end of his speech as he ad-libbed and veered from the carefully crafted text on the teleprompter.”
Matthew Yglesias: “I think Biden should do more off-script gaffes on domestic politics where his old man instincts are closer to the electorate than his staff. But when addressing great power conflict you want to stick to the prepared text.”