Watch: Biden Fires Back at Reporter Over Question About Deterring Putin
President Joe Biden grew frustrated with a reporter over a question about Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine, accusing her of “playing a game” with him. CBS News’ Christina Ruffini said during a press…
President Joe Biden grew frustrated with a reporter over a question about Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine, accusing her of “playing a game” with him.
CBS News’ Christina Ruffini said during a press conference Thursday, “Sir, deterrents did not work.”
She asked Biden, “What makes you think Vladimir Putin will alter course based on the action you’ve taken today?”
The president responded, “Let’s get something straight. You remember, if you covered me from the very beginning, I did not say in fact the sanctions would deter him. Sanctions never deter. You keep talking about that. Sanctions never deter.”
He continued, “The maintenance of sanctions, the maintenance of sanctions, the increasing the pain and the demonstration why I asked for this NATO meeting today is to be sure that after a month we will sustain what we’re doing, not just next month, the following month, but for the remainder of this entire year. That’s what will stop him.”
Ruffini went on to ask, “Do you believe the actions today will have an impact on Russia changing course in Ukraine?”
He fired back, “That’s not what I said. You’re playing a game with me. The answer’s no.”
Biden explained the “single most important thing is for us to stay unified and the world continue to focus on what a brute this guy is and all the innocent people’s lives that are being lost and ruined and what’s going on. That’s the important thing.”
He added, “But look if you’re Putin and you think that Europe is going to crack in a month or six weeks or two months, why not… they can take anything for another month. But we have to demonstrate. The reason I asked for the meeting. We have to stay fully, totally, thoroughly united.”
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The U.S. announced additional sanctions would be placed on over 400 Russians and Russian entities, as NBC News reported.
Additionally, the White House said as many as 100,000 Ukrainians would be allowed to enter the U.S. The outlet noted since the beginning of Biden’s presidency, he has approved $2 billion in military assistance to Ukraine.
Still, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told NATO his country is still in need of more military equipment.
“You have at least 20,000 tanks, Ukraine asked for a percent, one percent of all your tanks to be given or sold to us,” Zelenskyy said. “But we do not have a clear answer yet. The worst thing during the war is not having clear answers to requests for help.”