The White House clean-up crew has been quite busy in the last few months mopping up President Biden’s comments. For example, the White House had to quickly walk things back after Biden told US military personnel in Poland that they would soon be seeing things firsthand while in Ukraine. Another White House mop-up effort came after Biden said in reference to Vladimir Putin that “this man cannot remain in power.” The WH immediately came out and said Biden was not referring to a “regime change” in Russia.
The latest reason White House staffers had to grab their mops and buckets came after Biden’s remarks about Taiwan and China:
President Joe Biden says that the United States would intervene militarily if China were to invade Taiwan, in one of the most forceful and overt statements in support of Taiwan in decades. https://t.co/bTg2HeUuai
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 23, 2022
From the Associated Press:
Biden also issued a stern warning to China over Taiwan, saying the U.S. would respond militarily if China were to invade the self-ruled island. “That’s the commitment we made,” Biden said.
The U.S. recognizes Beijing as the one government of China and doesn’t have diplomatic relations with Taiwan. However, it maintains unofficial contacts with Taiwan, including a de facto embassy in Taipei, the capital, and supplies military equipment to the island for its defense.
Once again, the White House felt compelled to do some janitorial work in the wake of Biden’s remark:
After Biden says "yes" the US is willing to get involved militarily in Taiwan, a WH official says "As the President said, our policy has not changed. He reiterated our One China Policy and our commitment to peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait…."
— Kevin Liptak (@Kevinliptakcnn) May 23, 2022
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"He also reiterated our commitment under the Taiwan Relations Act to provide Taiwan with the military means to defend itself."
— Kevin Liptak (@Kevinliptakcnn) May 23, 2022
Once again, the White House felt compelled to remind us that what President Biden says does not necessarily reflect the official position of the Biden administration.
Here we go again https://t.co/IIzUq2U5so
— Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) May 23, 2022
Cleanup in aisle Biden. https://t.co/gCsGsvIaUT
— Lazer Rubin (@lazer_rubin) May 23, 2022
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