The Biden administration was forced to walk back comments that President Joe Biden made this week about the U.S. military’s preparedness for war.
Biden faced backlash on Sunday after saying during an interview with CNN that Department of Defense was running low on ammunition because of the war in Ukraine.
“The military has specific requirements for the numbers of weapons systems and ammunition we maintain in our reserves in case of contingencies or military conflict,” a White House official said in a statement. “Everything we send to Ukraine is in excess of that. So, the U.S. is not running out of ammunition ourselves.”
Biden made the remarks during an interview with Fareed Zakaria when he was asked about his decision to give cluster munitions to Ukraine.
“These are weapons that 100 nations banned, including some of our closest NATO allies,” Zakaria said. “When there was news that the Russians might be using it admittedly against civilians your then press secretary said this might be constitute war crimes.”
“What made you change your mind and decide to give them these weapons?” he asked.
“The Ukrainians are running out of ammunition,” Biden responded. “The ammunition, that they used to call them 155-millimeter weapons. This is a war relating to munitions, and they are running out of that ammunition, and we’re low on it.”
WATCH: Joe Biden broadcasts to the world that the U.S. is low on 155mm shells.
Does President Biden not care that our adversaries in communist China are listening?
pic.twitter.com/SxaI6jHo49— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) July 9, 2023
The White House’s correction of Biden’s remarks come after communist China used Biden’s latest gaffe to promote anti-American propaganda on social media.
“People have long known about 🇺🇸’s ammo shortage via many news reports,” tweeted the Global Times, a Chinese state-run propaganda outlet. “It’s already no secret to anyone. Let’s not forget Biden only mentioned this to justify his approval of using cluster bombs that might kill more civilians in the war.”
Biden faced pushback from some on his own side, including his top presidential challenger, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“Biden seems to be saying we’re sending cluster bombs to Ukraine because we’re running out of other munitions,” Democrat presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tweeted. “Looks like a pretext for even more military spending to me. The time has come to offer diplomatic alternatives to war + bring both sides to negotiating table.”