LVIV – Joe Biden doesn’t always use words with particular care. Remember the fuss he caused last month by saying of Vladimir Putin, “for God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power!” He was immediately accused of calling for regime change, when in fact he was just giving vent to the same exasperation that people across the Western world have been feeling since the invasion of Ukraine began. But the president of the United States isn’t an ordinary person, or at least he ought to be careful not to talk like one.
He was at it again on Tuesday night (12 April), at a meeting with farmers and others in Iowa. His prepared speech was about inflation, but he soon veered off-message. He told his audience that their ability to balance their books shouldn’t “hinge on whether a dictator declares war and commits genocide half a world away”. Cue instant criticism. Asked about it on French television, President Emmanuel Macron, who has managed his time in office so well that the far right in his country could be only a few days away from power, replied snottily that he would be careful with such terms as genocide. “I want to carry on trying to stop the war and rebuild peace,” he said. “I am not sure that an escalation of rhetoric serves that cause.”
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