Biden says he was 'expressing my outrage' but not making a policy change when he said Putin 'cannot remain in power'

President Joe Biden said Monday that he was not announcing a change in US policy when he said during a speech over the weekend that Russian President Vladimir Putin "cannot remain in power."

"I just was expressing my outrage -- he shouldn't remain in power, just like, you know, bad people shouldn't continue to do bad things," Biden said in response to a question from CNN's Kaitlan Collins. "But it doesn't mean we have a fundamental policy to do anything to take Putin down in any way."

Two days after Biden's return from Europe, the improvised comment about Putin -- "For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power" -- has hovered over the White House.

The White House and Biden himself have swiftly tried to downplay the comment, which was made at the end of a capstone address in Warsaw. The administration and allies say Biden wasn't calling for regime change to remove Putin from power. Rather, they argue that Biden was saying Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over neighboring nations.

"I was talking to the Russian people," Biden said, when asked by Collins why he ad-libbed the line.

"The last part of the speech was talking to Russian people," he said. "I was communicating this to, not only the Russian people but the whole world. This is, this is just stating a simple fact that this kind of behavior is totally unacceptable. Totally unacceptable. And the way to deal with it is to strengthen and keep NATO completely united and help Ukraine where we can."

Biden emphasized that he was speaking from the heart following a meeting with Ukrainian refugees in Warsaw.

"I'd just come from being with those families," he said, adding, "I make no apologies for it."

The President also dismissed the suggestion that his remarks might escalate the conflict in Ukraine. Biden said the suggestion that other leaders may take issue with his unscripted remarks during his address in Poland has not weakened NATO.

"NATO has never ever, ever, ever, ever, ever been as strong as it is today," Biden said.

The improvised comment about Putin, which came at the very end of a two-country visit to Europe meant to reinforce alliances, wasn't planned and surprised aides who were watching Biden's speech on television or at the event site. And the words hadn't been something Biden raised as potentially including in his speech -- previously, US officials were adamant that changing the government in Moscow wasn't one of their objectives. In closed-door meetings earlier in the week, Biden told fellow leaders at NATO that he did not want to escalate the West's confrontation with Russia.

Yet his ad-libbed line did more to pit him directly against Putin than anything so far in the conflict.