‘We Are Not Into Regime Change…Period’

In a one-on-one interview with MSNBC’s Joy Reid, Vice President Kamala Harris said the Biden Administration was not seeking Vladimir Putin’s removal as Russia’s president. “Let me be very clear,” Harris said. “We are not into regime change. And that is not our policy. Period.”

The vice president’s remarks follow President Biden’s speech a week ago in Poland, where he said “for God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.” Asked about that, Harris said America’s focus is on supporting the people of Ukraine, “but also ensuring that there’s going to be serious consequence for Vladimir Putin and Russian aggression.”

Harris said the U.S. would make sure “there are going to be real costs exacted against Russia in the form of severe sanctions, which we know are having a real impact and an immediate impact, not to mention the longer-term impact, which is about saying there’s going to be consequence and accountability when you commit the kinds of atrocities that he is committing.”

In the interview, which aired on MSNBC’s The Reidout Friday evening, the vice president was asked about the ongoing investigation into the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, which Harris said should include the actions of elected officials who may have supported the insurrection. “In terms of elected leaders, to the extent that they were complicit in a crime, of course, there should be some kind of response to that. But also there should be I think a continuing discussion about the fact that what happened on January 6th was a concerted attempt to undermine the integrity of our election system, to suggest that in any way it lacked legitimacy.”

Harris added that “I will tell you maybe as a plan of distinction between our administration and the previous administration. We do not interfere or attempt to influence the investigative and prosecutorial decisions of the Department of Justice.”

Asked about the questioning President Biden’s pick for the Supreme Court, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson endured, Harris said: