Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
A FORMER US Secretary of Defence has suggested that ‘compassion’ arising from President Joe Biden’s Irish heritage was the cause of comments about Putin’s future as the leader of Russia.
At the weekend, Biden remarked that the Russian President “cannot remain in power”.
The White House sought to pull back from the statement, which diverted from its official position, saying that Biden was not advocating for “regime change” in Russia.
Former US Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta, who held the role during Obama’s presidency, said today that Biden is “Irish” and “has a great deal of compassion when he sees that people are suffering”.
Asked on CNN why he thought Biden made that comment about Putin, Panetta said: “I happen to think that Joe Biden, you know, he’s Irish, he really has a great deal of compassion when he sees that people are suffering.”
“I think it overwhelmed him in the sense of seeing all of the horrors that were resulting from this war,” he said.
“From a personal point of view, I understand why he said it, but at the same time, when you’re president of the United States, you have to be disciplined to make sure you don’t make comments that ultimately have to be clarified by the White House.”
Biden made his comments about Putin’s future while on a visit to Warsaw in Poland, where thousands of Ukrainian refugees have fled.
He later told reporters at the White House: “I’m not walking anything back… I want to make it clear, I wasn’t then, nor am I now, articulating a policy change. I was expressing moral outrage that I feel — I make no apologies for my personal feelings”.
Biden has often drawn on his Irish roots in his political career, cementing it as part of his persona as a public figure.
He has discussed stories of his maternal great-great-grandfather Patrick Blewitt from Mayo, who emigrated to the US, and another great-great-grandfather Owen Finnegan who came from Louth.
On his father’s side, which is less discussed, his ancestry is English, French and Irish.
Additional reporting by AFP
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
As far as I know you have to be American by birth to become president, so why drag the Irish into it.
@John O Mahony: maybe you should ask the 60 million Americans that consider themselves Irish? But then again you already knew this.
@John O Mahony: Says Oh Ma-hoe-ny
@Paul Furey: that 60 million aren’t president
@Paul Furey: did the 60 million make the comment or Joe Biden as president of America
@lelookcoco: wrong and at least I don’t hide behind a nickname
@lelookcoco: don’t know where you got your spelling from keyboard warrior
@lelookcoco: lol
@lelookcoco: before you comment on my name learn how to spell it. I am proud of my name and I don’t hide it like you
@Paul Furey: there are French and English on his father’s side why not say them or is it the Irish only a whipping boys
@John O Mahony: FIFA rule in there somewhere!!
What’s all the hullabaloo about? President Biden is quite correct in his comments about the thug putin.
@Richard Ahern: The US has such a positive history of regime change wars like in Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam…..not to mention the CIA business in the likes of Cuba. Definitely something they should do more of, it never ends with bloodshed instability and death.
@Richard Ahern: It plays right into Putin’s hands and validates what he’s been saying in his propaganda about the West. What Biden said is true but he needs to keep some views private for the sake of international diplomacy. If Putin is going to be removed from power it will have to be by the Russian people and statements like this make that less likely.
@Richard Ahern: Objections to Hiden’s honest and fair remarks are malarkey!
@Richard Ahern: Biden conveniently failed to mention when the U.S. created a coup in Iran to remove the Democratically elected government of Mosaddegh and replaced him with a despot called the Shah, Or the murder of the Diem brothers who they installed and then removed in South Vietnam. Well we certainly know how that worked out for the U.S.
@Donal Desmond: The Iranian coup was the Brits’ idea in fairness.
@David F. Dwyer: U.S,Britain, France., The U.S. organised the Coup. It was at U.S. insistence the the Shah was installed.
Risible excuse at best. His unscripted remarks are making him into a liability – it’s not the first time the White House had to roll back on them. He’s forgetting the US may actually have to sit down at a (possibly rather lengthy) negotiating table with Russia themselves, and such comments are therefore not helpful in making any progress towards (lasting) peace.
@Mick Tobin: They will not be sitting down with Russia for a long time to come, maybe after the Ukraine and international courts are finished prosecuting in abstentia Russia’s war Criminals.
@michael halligan: Those courts are getting less and less international – they are part of precisely the order that Russia, backed up by China, is essentially trying to get rid of. You may want to take note that many in countries with histories of colonialism/slavery or US wars seem to be watching with some satisfaction that the west is ‘getting its ar$e kicked’, and you can be sure that Beijing is taking note.
Prolonging this conflict is in not in our interest, nor the US’s, but basic regard for diplomacy plus the fact that wars have a tendency to eventually conclude at the negotiating table, is.
@michael halligan: Wonder will Tony Blair and George Bush stand alongside of Putin.
No harm in saying it. Despite handing putin a juicy bit of propaganda….it’ll rattle some corners of the Russian power corridors. Maybe the oligarchs will do something now to save their zillions? Who knows, maybe the power of the Irish gab might work?
@Paul Furey: It’s cringeworthy to hear Biden’s team come out with this – if this was Trump, the outrage would be unreal.
@LaoisWeather: the only outrage would be from the Irish themselves having hat clown labeled one of our own.
@LaoisWeather:
Except Trump like to say just how smart Putin is
@Paul Furey: the Irish said nothing
@Paul Furey: the Irish said nothing maybe it was the French or English on his father’s side
Biden is an old man who is losing mental faculties. It’s that simple. He says things that he has not thought through. “off the cuff” if you will. A US president saying someone cannot remain in power is absolutely a call for regime change, if he actually meant to say but he most likely was emoting without thought. Before that he told US troops that they would see the Ukrainian military up close when they went there! Which is actually more of a gaff as no US troops are going in unless it’s WW3. And he knows that, in his lucid moments.
I find this other guy despicable to use Bidens ancestry from 200+ years ago as a defence. It’s time people said it out loud, Biden is in cognitive decline. He is not fit to be president.
@v39e84kK:
Nicely missing the point where it was in Poland, where Ukraine troops and Biden was.
@v39e84kK: Same as Trump was , particularly with his pronouncements on covid.
@Ixtrix Net: and I quote “You’re going to see when you’re there, and some of you have been there, you’re gonna see — you’re gonna see women, young people standing in the middle in front of a damned tank just saying, ‘I’m not leaving, I’m holding my ground,’”. Are there young people standing in front of tanks in Poland? No, he clearly meant Ukraine.
@v39e84kK:
Yeah, tbf, that was pretty poorly worded, even if was taken a bit out of context.
Biden is America’s answer to Prince Phillip
A continuous source of high profile gaffes.
@White Chapel: Philip didn’t have the nuclear codes.
@v39e84kK: That’s what they want you to believe.
Don’t go dragging us into the circus that Biden is.
Putin is attempting regime change in Ukraine. All this fuss about Biden’s remark whilst thousands are being murdered !
Misspoke? Nah. He didn’t miss a poke at Putin, he laid it on bigtime and poked the bear right in the eye! Given the reaction of other world leaders though it probably wasn’t such a good idea in retrospect…
@William Tallon:
Only other leader that matters with this, is China’s Xi Jinping
Putin is not a nice person….Biden called him out….considering what Trump came out with in his four years in office…I believe Joe Biden was correct in his commentary on the Evil one. So far my response is unlikely to be perceived as toxic. This is after several attempts at-expressing how I-really feel about the toxic situation in Ukraine.
have your say