{"id":1404590,"date":"2022-03-28T10:29:37","date_gmt":"2022-03-28T14:29:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1404590"},"modified":"2022-03-28T10:30:52","modified_gmt":"2022-03-28T14:30:52","slug":"no-bidens-putin-gaffe-was-no-reagan-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/no-bidens-putin-gaffe-was-no-reagan-moment\/","title":{"rendered":"No, Biden\u2019s Putin Gaffe Was No Reagan Moment"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fno-bidens-putin-gaffe-was-no-reagan-moment%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1404590&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>After President Joe Biden went wildly off-script in his speech in Warsaw, Poland, on Saturday, members of the corporate media jumped to compare the gaffe to President Ronald Reagan\u2019s \u201ctear down this wall\u201d moment. But the comments couldn\u2019t have been more different.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor God\u2019s sake, this man cannot remain in power,\u201d Biden <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/briefing-room\/speeches-remarks\/2022\/03\/26\/remarks-by-president-biden-on-the-united-efforts-of-the-free-world-to-support-the-people-of-ukraine\/\">ad-libbed<\/a> about Vladimir Putin at the very end of a half-hour of prepared remarks. White House officials immediately began doing damage control for the president\u2019s radical and dangerous call for regime change in Moscow, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AshleyRParker\/status\/1507785505471148038\">telling<\/a> the press, \u201cThe President\u2019s point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region. He was not discussing Putin\u2019s power in Russia, or regime change.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith did similar <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/03\/27\/us\/politics\/biden-ukraine.html\">clean-up<\/a>, and multiple White House sources <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/03\/27\/us\/politics\/biden-ukraine.html\">confirmed<\/a> the line wasn\u2019t in Biden\u2019s prepared remarks.<\/p>\n<p>In stark contrast, the iconic line in Reagan\u2019s speech at the Brandenburg Gate had been discussed and debated in White House circles for weeks, and was very intentionally included by Reagan \u2014 it was no spur-of-the-moment line that accidentally said more than the president meant.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn his early drafts of the speech, [John Kornblum, the top U.S official in Berlin] included a direct call to Gorbachev to open the Wall,\u201d The Washington Post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/retropolis\/wp\/2017\/06\/12\/tear-down-this-wall-how-reagans-forgotten-line-became-a-defining-presidential-moment\/\">recorded<\/a>. \u201cBack in Washington, White House speechwriter Peter Robinson was similarly inclined and weeks of heated debate ensued.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Robinson recalled telling Reagan that some people on the eastern side of the wall would be able to hear him, and asking what the president wanted to make sure they heard.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd the president said, \u2018Well, there\u2019s that passage about tearing down the wall. That\u2019s what I want to say to them. That wall has to come down,\u2019\u201d Robinson <a href=\"https:\/\/news.stanford.edu\/2019\/11\/06\/reagans-mr-gorbachev-tear-down-this-wall-was-almost-left-unsaid\/\">remembered<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But while Reagan loved the line, White House Chief of Staff Howard Baker and Secretary of State George Shultz didn\u2019t. Robinson said the speechwriting team got seven different drafts of the speech in their back-and-forths with the National Security Council and the State Department, all of which edited the line out.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was only when Air Force One landed in Berlin that a White House official approached Kornblum and said Reagan had decided,\u201d the Post continued.<\/p>\n<p>Reagan\u2019s line \u2014 which only years later would become iconic \u2014 was a far cry from Biden\u2019s flub, which was so obviously not well thought through that a fawning Politico Playbook on Sunday morning resorted to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/newsletters\/playbook\/2022\/03\/27\/bidens-9-word-ad-lib-that-set-the-world-ablaze-00020701\">calling<\/a> it a \u201cgaffe from the heart.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>That didn\u2019t stop talking heads from holding Biden\u2019s whoopsie up to Reagan\u2019s time-tested line. Max Boot did so in a WaPo op-ed titled \u201cBiden\u2019s support for Ukraine and opposition to Putin were no \u2018gaffe,\u2019\u201d in which he found himself <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/2022\/03\/27\/biden-warsaw-speech-pitch-perfect-analysis\/\">admitting<\/a> that actually, \u201cthe fact that Biden\u2019s aides rushed to walk back his remarks with lame explanations \u2026 suggests that this was indeed a gaffe \u2014 one of many that Biden has committed over his long political career.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/markknoller\/status\/1507783336479105028\">said<\/a> on Twitter Saturday that Biden\u2019s accidental line \u201ctops Reagan\u2019s 1987 \u2018tear down this wall\u2019 speech.\u201d Reuters\u2019 Michel Rose <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MichelReuters\/status\/1507784582502006794\">wrote<\/a>, \u201c\u2018For God\u2019s sake, this man cannot remain in power\u2019 is Biden\u2019s \u2018Tear down this wall\u2019 moment.\u201d Jennifer Rubin of the Post and MSNBC <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JRubinBlogger\/status\/1507772463442276355\">said<\/a> the speech was \u201cakin to those at the Brandenburg Gate by JFK and Reagan.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"668\" height=\"292\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/image-2.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-269717\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/image-2.png 668w, https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/image-2-300x131.png 300w\" \/><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"670\" height=\"719\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/image-3.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-269718\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/image-3.png 670w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/image-3-280x300-1.png 280w\" \/><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"673\" height=\"244\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/image-4.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-269719\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/image-4.png 673w, https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/image-4-300x109.png 300w\" \/><\/figure>\n<p>Not to be outdone, the Lincoln Project\u2019s Rick Wilson <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheRickWilson\/status\/1507805514712952839\">opined<\/a> that \u201cBiden did \u2018Tear Down This Wall\u2019 for our era,\u201d while the group\u2019s Tara Setmayer <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TaraSetmayer\/status\/1507781226857476107\">gushed<\/a>, \u201cPres. Biden may have just given his \u2018tear down this wall\u2019 speech. Wow.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>There are several obvious differences between the two presidents\u2019 remarks \u2014 such as the fact that Reagan was known as a master communicator and Biden is infamous for his <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2019\/09\/02\/biden-gaffe-machine-running-list-joe-bidens-best-slip-ups\/\">gaffes<\/a>, or that Biden\u2019s line was far more incendiary than his predecessor\u2019s. But the most glaring distinction is that Reagan intentionally included the line after weeks of thought, while Biden appeared to go off-script out of old-guy indignation and frustration. They\u2019re nowhere near the same thing, no matter what media sycophants desperate for a moment of good PR for the self-sabotaging Biden administration say.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Elle Reynolds is an assistant editor at The Federalist, and received her B.A. in government from Patrick Henry College with a minor in journalism. You can follow her work on Twitter at @_etreynolds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After President Joe Biden went wildly off-script in his speech in Warsaw, Poland, on Saturday, members of the corporate media jumped to compare the gaffe to President Ronald Reagan\u2019s \u201ctear<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":500,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1404590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1404590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/500"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1404590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1404590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1404590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1404590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1404590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}