In 2013, John Kerry Said Assad “Has to Go.” In 2022, Joe Biden Said Putin “Cannot Remain in Power.”

On February 25, 2013, then-Secretary of State John Kerry said that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad ‘has to go.”  Nine years later, John Kerry is gone, but President Assad is still in power.  Today, President Biden said, “For God’s sake, this man [i.e., Vladimir Putin] cannot remain in power.” 

Since President Biden said President Putin “cannot remain in power,” I hope he means it, and I hope he knows how he is going to get it done.  Because this is not something you say, unless you both mean it and know how you are going to accomplish it.

On August 5, 1990, President George H.W. Bush said, with respect to Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait: “This will not stand, this aggression against Kuwait.”  Saddam Hussein was kicked out of Kuwait, early the next year.

President Bush showed us how these things are done.  You don’t say things, unless you have thought them through and are willing to actually do them.  Now that President Biden has said that Putin has to go, I hope he understands he has to follow through on it.
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FURTHER COMMENT (3/27/22 10:35 am): It appears the White House tried to walk back President Biden’s comment.  But you can’t do that.  Once the President says something, it stays said.  It’s the problem with off-hand comments, which this may have been; not unlike Barack Obama’s “red-line” with respect to Syria’s use of chemical weapons.  It is unclear how well that was thought through before he made it.  It probably wasn’t, given that he did not follow through on it.