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The White House said Tuesday that President Biden did not accidentally leak classified information while attempting to clean up a gaffe he made while speaking to U.S. troops in Poland last week.
Biden was speaking to U.S. troops in Poland on Friday when he appeared to suggest that they would soon be in Ukraine itself – something U.S. officials have repeatedly ruled out.
WHITE HOUSE INSISTS US TROOPS NOT GOING TO UKRAINE AFTER BIDEN COMMENTS IN POLAND
“You’re going to see when you’re there – some of you have been there – you’re going to see women, young people, standing in the middle, in front of a damn tank, saying, ‘I’m not leaving,'” Biden said.
President Biden delivers a speech at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland, Saturday, March 26, 2022.
(AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
A White House spokesperson later clarified: “The president has been clear we are not sending U.S. troops to Ukraine and there is no change in that position.”
In trying to further clean up his gaffe, Biden told reporters during a press conference Monday that he was “talking about helping train the Ukrainian troops that are in Poland,” another measure U.S. officials had previously ruled out.
Pressed again, Biden said, “I was referring to being with, and talking with, the Ukrainian troops that are in Poland.”
Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich asked White House Director of Communications Kate Bedingfield during Tuesday’s press briefing whether Biden had accidentally revealed “a previously unknown effort for the U.S. to be training Ukrainian forces in Poland.”
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki (L) and White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield (R) wait for President Joe Biden to deliver remarks on the COVID-19 response and vaccination program in the Rose Garden of the White House on May 13, 2021 in Washington, DC.
(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
“No,” Bedingfield answered. “The troops that he met with in Poland routinely interact with Ukrainians. That is something that’s known. … That is in no way revealing compromised information. That being said, there’s nothing further that I have to say on that beyond what the president said yesterday.”
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Another reporter later pressed, “Are they training in Poland or not?”
“Well, as I said, there is regular interaction between Ukrainian soldiers in Poland and the US troops that the President saw on the trip,” Bedingfield responded. “There’s nothing no further detail that I can add on that, except to say that there is regular interaction. As you saw, we were there near the border, and there’s regular interaction between those troops that he saw and Ukrainians.”
