escalation. neil, back here in the united states, politicians on capitol hill, they have a lot to say about this. listen to this. whoever wrote that speech did a good job for him, but my gosh, i wish they would keep him on script. most people that don t deal in the lane of foreign relations don t realize those nine words that he uttered would cause the eruption that they did. ohio republican senator rob portman called the speech a powerful speech. he praised it with several other republicans and democrats, but senator portman said that that put that was unscripted, he likened that to falling into the hands of russian propaganda. neil? neil: david spunt. the president said he s not walking back anything. from leon panetta, the former
david spunt is at the white house and we begin with mike tobin in lviv. russians and ukrainians are said to get back to cease-fire talks. russians says the goal is to claim the east of the country but air strikes continue to come west. the sirens waild repeatedly this weekend warning of impending air strikes. three times russian missiles came down on fuel depos in the west of ukraine. most pictures came from lviv. russia negotiator says peace talks start tomorrow. ukrainians say it is not about surrender. it was not mean ukraine is ready to surrender.
the regional administrator says it s about reading, writing, arigt me particular and a distraction from the war. dana: thank you for that report. trace: team coverage continues. let s go to david spunt at the white house this morning. good morning to you. good morning to you. the president s speech in poland hit many significant points but it was nine words at the end of the speech that are catching the most attention. listen. president biden: for god sake, this man cannot remain in power. not even a year ago the president and russian counterpart vladimir putin held a summit where ukraine was not even the most pressing issue. now the president made that statement and the white house quickly clarified after the speech putting out a statement in part the president s point was that putin could not be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region. he was not discussing putin s power in russia or regime change. french president macron, who condemned but is in touch wi
feeling that he has some or little ability to manage that crisis while 28% quite a bit or a great deal believe he can. trace, the president will unveil his budget for fiscal year 2023. he will speak to the press and you can imagine he will be asked about this issue in poland. we ll see what he has to say. trace and dana. trace: thank you, david. dana: let s bring in marc thiessen. former speech writer for president george w. bush. i know you pay attention to these issues and words closely. just to set things up i want to play a sound bite from jen psaki from march 4 on this question zbloo. not the position of the united states government and not a statement you would hear come from the mouth of anybody working in this administration. we re not advocating for killing the leader of a foreign country or regime change. not the policy of the united states. dana: as soon as he said those nine words i knew it would be a big deal.
why slow walking weapons to ukraine? they re afraid of provoking russia. why not give them the mig 29s they are asking for? because they are afraid of provoking russia. they have to stop being worried about provoking russia and focus on helping zelenskyy defeat vladimir putin in ukraine. dana: do you think president biden can do that today as david spunt reported he will give a speech on his budget but take questions from the press likely. that s usually what happens. can he fix it? i don t quite don t know. the problem is he doesn t appear to be whenever they do this over and over again they create the impression he is not in charge of his own administration. the staff is running the show. he will probably say whatever the staff tells him to say to clarify this today. he shouldn t be walking back his words. when he says something strong like that about putin you can clarify and dismiss the whole regime change thing by saying