By Harriet Alexander For Dailymail.com
Published: 23:39 EDT, 28 March 2022 | Updated: 07:42 EDT, 29 March 2022
Joe Biden was mocked online on Monday for using a printed 'cheat sheet' of answers to expected questions when he faced the media to discuss the Ukraine war.
Biden was in Poland on Saturday and declared in Warsaw that Vladimir Putin 'cannot remain in power' before flying back to Washington, DC.
Asked on Monday about his remarks, which many saw as advocating for regime change, the 79-year-old president referred to a typed cue card for hints.
He said he made 'no apologies' for his remarks, made off the cuff and not part of his prepared speech.
'It's more an aspiration than anything. He shouldn't be in power. There's no — I mean, people like this shouldn't be ruling countries, but they do. The fact is they do, but it doesn't mean I can't express my outrage about it,' he said as he held the cheat sheet in his left hand.
'I was talking to the Russian people. The last part of the speech was talking to the Russian people, telling them what we thought.'
The notes read: 'If you weren't advocating for regime change, what did you mean? Can you clarify?
'I was expressing the moral outrage I felt towards the actions of this man.
'I was not articulating a change in policy.'
The president on Monday was seen holding a cue card in his left hand as he addressed reporters
President Joe Biden refused on Monday to walk back his Saturday comments about not allowing President Vladimir Putin of Russia to stay in power, but faced a barrage of questions from reporters
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Biden had also anticipated a question about the reaction from the French president, Emmanuel Macron.
Macron said on Sunday that he would not have used Biden's words, adding that he saw his task as 'achieving first a ceasefire and then the total withdrawal of [Russian] troops by diplomatic means'.
Biden's comments were seized on by the Kremlin and President Vladimir Putin's allies. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: 'This is a statement that is certainly alarming'
He told broadcaster France 3: 'If we want to do that, we can't escalate in either words or actions.'
Biden's notes read: 'Is this now threatening to splinter unity with your NATO allies?'
The answer Biden had ready stated: 'No. NATO has never been more united.'
Biden regularly uses cue cards, and was photographed frequently with them on the campaign trail and in office.
He often took from his pocket the daily totals of COVID cases, which he referenced regularly.
He also used them to give precise details at a Town Hall before the election, as he fielded a question about taxes.
'I carry this card with me,' Biden said, referencing the card.
He used several cheat sheets during his first presidential press conference, including one with the headshots and names of reporters he planned to call on.
Biden also utilized notes during a 2021 summit with Putin, while touring the damage of Hurricane Ida in Louisiana and while calling on reporters at the G20 summit in Rome.
'I'll take your questions, and as usual, folks, they gave me a list of the people I'm going to call on,' Biden told the assembled media at the November forum.
Biden delivered his controversial remarks right at the end of his three-day trip to Europe, at the end of a speech in the Polish capital Warsaw on Saturday. The White House then had to walk back his comments and insisted he wasn't advocating for regime change
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On Monday, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul took issue with Biden's use of the cue cards, and his off-the-cuff remarks about Putin.
Paul questioned Biden's acuity, saying the aging president's remarks were a threat to national security.
'A lot of times when you're around somebody who's in cognitive decline, you find yourself trying to help them with a sentence, trying to help them complete it - but we shouldn't have to do that for the commander-in-chief,' he told Fox News.
'And, it is actually a national security risk because he's sending signals that no one in their right mind would want to send to Russia at this point.
'We aren't trying to replace Putin in Russia. We aren't trying to have regime change. We're not sending troops into Ukraine, and we're not going to respond in kind with chemical weapons.'
Rand Paul told Fox News on Monday that he was troubled by Biden's use of a 'cheat sheet'
Biden's use of the cards was mocked on social media.
'Our @POTUS, Joe Biden is just walking around on eggshells, reading cue cards his handlers provide,' said one critic.
'If he EVER had a backbone, he can't remember where he put it.'
Another added: 'Scary. Democrats put us in this precarious situation. This is the most dangerous the world has been in decades due to Democrats and Biden.'
Another said that Biden was 'living in an alternate universe total detached from reality.'
One commented: 'The WH staff gives Biden cue cards with scripted answers/statements yet still has to walk back what he says on a daily basis.'
Another added: 'The exact opposite to Theodore Roosevelt's foreign policy: 'speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.'
'Biden made a mess of Afghanistan & he'll do the same with whatever he does unless he's reading from cue cards. Even then he stumbles & says 'Iranian'.'
How embarrassing! If the President of the United S...
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