President Joe Biden appeared to say Monday that U.S. troops are training Ukrainian forces in Poland to fight and kill Russians despite numerous administration statements to the contrary.
Biden traveled to eastern Europe last week as he toured U.S. military placements and met with top European Union and NATO officials amid the war between Russia and Ukraine. Biden has made clear that the U.S. does not intend to get directly involved in the war unless Russia attacks a NATO ally, or possibly if Russian President Vladimir Putin orders the use of a biological, chemical, or nuclear weapon.
During a press conference Monday, the president said that U.S. troops are actively involved in training Ukrainian troops to fight. As Politico reported:
That’s not what Biden said Monday. After delivering remarks about the White House’s new budget request, Biden answered a reporter’s question about comments he made when meeting the 82nd Airborne in Poland, in which he implied American forces would be going to Ukraine. Biden denied that’s what he meant, adding: “We’re talking about helping train the Ukrainian troops that are in Poland.”
Pressed again, Biden said, “I was referring to being with, and talking with, the Ukrainian troops that are in Poland.”
After the press conference, administration officials walked back the president’s comments in what has become a reoccurring cycle in the past several days. The White House has walked back and clarified Biden’s comments on the Russia-Ukraine conflict at least four times in the past week.
Gen. Todd Wolters, the supreme allied commander of NATO forces and the head of U.S. European Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Monday that U.S. forces are not actively training Ukrainian combatants.
“I do not believe that we are in the process of currently training military forces from Ukraine in Poland,” he said. “There are liaisons that are there that are being given advice, and that’s different than I think you’re referring to with respect to training.”
A senior White House official told Politico: “There are Ukrainian soldiers in Poland interacting on a regular basis with U.S. troops, and that’s what the President was referring to.”
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) blasted Biden Monday night for his “incredibly dangerous” comments that have repeatedly put his own administration in the awkward position of walking back his comments.
“Watching the cascade of blunders from Biden, that’s five gaffes in 48 hours,” Cruz said during an appearance on Fox News’ “Hannity.” “I don’t recall ever seeing an American president mess things up so badly, from calling for regime change, then calling that back; from suggesting America would launch chemical weapons to walking that back; from suggesting the 82nd Airborne would be sent to Ukraine to calling that back.”
“He also said sanctions never work despite their talking point having been for months that the threat of sanctions is precisely why he waived sanctions on Nordstream 2,” Cruz continued, “and I gotta say there’s a fifth gaffe in the segment you played right at the beginning of the show: When Biden was trying to explain all of this, he said, ‘Well, the explanation is that Americans were training Ukrainian troops in Poland.’”
“If that’s the case — I don’t know about it — but if that’s the case, that is surely classified and it may be that he’s explaining classified secrets on national television,” he said. “This is like Mr. Magoo as president, where every time he explains one thing it gets worse and worse and worse, and we’ve got nuclear weapons pointed at each other. It is incredibly dangerous, this kind of presidential weakness.”