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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Jake Ellzey questioned whether a cue card with talking points that President Biden used involved collusion with the media and suggested that other people are “calling the shots.”
A photo showed that Biden held a note card during a news briefing Monday. The card included prepared responses to a question asking what the president meant when he said earlier that Russian President Vladimir Putin couldn’t remain in power.
“The question I have is, were those questions that he had on the note card planted by somebody else and then referred to by the media?” Ellzey, a Texas Republican, said during an interview with Fox News. “That would show collusion with the media.”
Biden has previously relied on prepared lists of reporters when taking questions from the media. He’s said he was given a list, but it’s unclear who crafted it.
RUSSIA INVADES UKRAINE: LIVE UPDATES
“I think he has a team that he relies on more than I would if I were the president,” Ellzey told Fox News. “I think that there are some people calling the shots that we don’t know who they are, and they need to be briefing us on what they’re advising the president on what he should be doing.”
Rep. Jake Ellzey speaks to Fox News.
(Fox News)
The president has previously made remarks that have led critics to question if someone is giving Biden orders. In September, for example, he said he was “supposed to stop and walk out of the room” after he finished prepared remarks.
Biden said Saturday that Putin “cannot remain in power.” He made the impromptu comment during a speech in Poland during which he called Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a “strategic failure.”
Administration officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, clarified that the U.S. is not seeking regime change.
Biden, echoing statements on his note card, said Monday that he was expressing outrage, rather than suggesting policy change.
President Joe Biden announces his Budget for Fiscal Year 2023, which will reduce deficits by more than $1 trillion over the next decade, advance safety and security at home and around the world, and make the investments needed to build a better America in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 14, 2022.
(Photo by Oliver Contreras/Pool/Sipa USA)
Ellzey noted that politicians regularly rely on note cards to stay on message.
“Especially at the presidential level, every word that he says is going to be scrutinized, gone over by every world leader, because it has impact,” Ellzey told Fox News. “He went off message, and it got him in trouble.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law legislation that could punish journalists with up to 15 years in prison for reporting so-called “fake” news about his military invasion of Ukraine.
(Yuri Kochetkov/Pool)
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Ellzey added that Biden needs to “use a lot of thought before he opens his mouth” since the situation in Ukraine is so sensitive and because the president’s statements carry so much influence.
Intelligence officials have warned that Putin could turn to nuclear or chemical weapons since Ukraine has been so effective at fighting off the Russian invaders.
A Kremlin spokesperson said Biden’s comments were “alarming.” French President Emmanuel Macron suggested that they weren’t helpful for peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv.
