Biden calls Putin a ‘rational actor’ who ‘totally miscalculated’ with Ukraine war

President Joe Biden called Russian President Vladimir Putin a ‘rational actor’ who embarked on an ‘irrational’ invasion of Ukraine in a new TV interview on Tuesday.

‘I think he is a rational actor who’s miscalculated significantly,’ Biden told CNN‘s Jake Tapper in a preview clip of his primetime interview. 

The president referenced the lead-up to Putin’s invasion earlier this year when ‘no one believed that he was going to invade Ukraine’ despite increasingly hostile rhetoric and a buildup of troops at the neighboring nation’s border.

‘You listen to what he says, if you listen to the speech he made after when that decision was being made, he talked about the whole idea of – he was, needed to be the leader of Russia that united all the Russian speakers – I mean, it’s just, I just think it’s irrational,’ Biden said.

The Russian autocrat’s mental stability had been the subject of speculation when he first launched the unprovoked attack in late February, when rumors swirled that his thinking was altered by cancer therapies or steroids. None of those were ever confirmed. 

Putin’s brain is back under the world’s microscope now as he and his henchmen continue to ratchet up threats of unleashing nuclear hell on Ukraine.

But during his Tuesday interview, Biden was careful to make a distinction between his Kremlin counterpart’s mind and his plans for Kyiv.

He cut off Tapper when the journalist began, ‘So if he’s not rational-‘ 

‘No, I didn’t say he’s not rational, I think – I think the speech, his objectives are not rational,’ Biden clarified.

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He added that Putin likely believed his attempt to annex all of Ukraine as part of Russia would be ‘welcomed with open arms.’ 

President Joe Biden has a new sit-down interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Tuesday

‘I think he thought, Jake, I think he thought he was going to be welcomed with open arms, that this was the home of Mother Russia in Kyiv, and that where he was going to be welcomed,’ the president explained.

‘And I think he just totally miscalculated.’

Ukraine’s troops have staged an unprecedented and successful counteroffensive in recent weeks to take back Russian-held territory.

Putin also took a blow when the Kerch Strait Bridge linking the Crimean peninsula to Russian-occupied Kherson was partially demolished in an explosion.

The setbacks have prompted Russia to retaliate with indiscriminate rocket fire on Ukrainian cities including Kyiv.

Biden warned last weekend that the world faces the prospect of a nuclear ‘armageddon’ should Putin’s war escalate. 

Multiple administration officials have since affirmed that the US sees no change in Russia’s nuclear posture while Biden’s critics accused him of needless verbal escalation. 

Hours before Biden sat down with CNN on Tuesday, he participated in a G7 leaders meeting along with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.