Psaki defends Biden's 'shoot from the shoulder' comments, indicates that they may not reflect policy

White House reporters began to directly question Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Wednesday about how to tell the difference between President Joe Biden’s own words, in contrast to official White House positions.

It began when CNN’s MJ Lee introduced her question by bringing up how the White House had to walk back Biden's previous statements regarding Ukraine: In mid-March, he called Putin a war criminal. At the end of March when Biden claimed Putin "cannot remain in power." Then this past Tuesday Biden accused Russian troops of committing a genocide.

"Does this not send a signal to the world that there kind of is an asterisk next to anything the President says?" Lee asked as a follow-up.

Psaki’s responded that people now expect on a regular basis for Biden to speak off the cuff in an emotional fashion. This sort of behavior was prominently on display with the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

"When the president ran, he promised the American people he would shoot from the shoulder and tell it them straight," Psaki said, noting that she didn't think anyone was confused by Biden's remarks, or whether he is speaking for himself or for the nation.

"Do you think that there's any danger to global leaders: including Vladimir Putin, to Olaf Scholz, if they can't be sure when they hear words coming out of the President's mouth, whether he is stating a personal opinion versus making a statement about US policy?" asked Lee.

Psaki asked for an example of where a world leader is confused by Biden’s words. Unnamed reporter brings up how France’s Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday refused to entertain the US President’s "escalation of words" to describe Putin’s actions.

The French leader previously spoke up against Biden’s "Putin cannot remain in power" gaffe.

Psaki responded, "President Putin is brutally targeting civilians and brutalizing a country right now. So the President, this President was speaking to what those atrocities are and what he is seeing on the ground. A number of other leaders have done exactly that. It does not change policy, in the sense that we’ve seen these atrocities, unfortunately for weeks now, and we’re going to see more as Russia pulls back from parts of the country."

Biden’s words don’t matter, says Psaki. The Russian leader will decide on his own.

Psaki then redirected focus to the continued vows of assistance for support by the United States in terms of military equipment.

Psaki then clarified that carrying out "legal obligations" to claims of genocide is a process that’d take many years.

Another reporter followed up on this line of questioning.

"When you're talking about the president, sort of, you know, and I should preface this by saying that, you know, the world and we are all still getting to know this president, and he has been around for a while, but we have not seen him in the role as president for a while," said this unnamed reporter.

She asked for advice about how to suss out what is US policy and when Biden was speaking from personal emotion.

Psaki responded, "He's the President of the United States, he speaks for the United States. There's also a legal review and process that is important to take place in the case of genocide, or war crimes. So we're trying to provide as much information on that as possible."

The reporter pressed Psaki for tips. She says both that Biden will speak for "exactly what policy is" but also that whatever reporters label it as, won’t "change policy."

"What we are doing right now, in terms of the amount of security assistance we're providing including the new package today goes far beyond what we have done in many cases where there we have called it genocide. So there is not a direct trigger in that way, and if that's helpful clarity, for anybody happy to provide it. But he is the president, he speaks for what our policy is, and I would take his words for exactly what they are."