Biden's careless comments are hurting his presidency and diplomacy. He needs a reset.

I used to cringe when Vice President Joe Biden took to the podium. Despite all the preparation that went into an event and his remarks, as a staffer on the National Security Council, you never quite knew what he might say. At times, his offhanded comments could  spice up what otherwise would be a pretty boring policy address. Yet, there were other times, too many times, when it could veer into dangerous terrain.

The reckless riffs have continued during his presidency, especially when discussing diplomacy.

There were his careless comments last year on the inevitability of Kabul’s fall to the Taliban in Afghanistan. In January, he seemed to give Russian President Vladimir Putin a tacit green light to take at least some Ukrainian territory. Then in March during a high-profile speech in Poland, Biden inexplicably insisted that the kleptocratic occupant of the Kremlin should be removed from power.

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The United States has always gone to great lengths to insist regime change in Moscow was not our objective. The latest example was his clear commitment of American forces to the defense of Taiwan, a major departure from our long-standing policy of “strategic ambiguity” on the question of whether or not we would directly confront a Chinese invasion.

Biden tends to go off script

How does such careless careening into crisis territory keep happening? Biden bears the lion share of blame for his ill-considered improvisation. But a portion of the responsibility also lies with his national security team.

They are all too aware that he has this troublesome tendency to go off script. It does not appear that in most of these instances his National Security Council adequately prepared him for what ought to be obvious questions. What should we say when asked about Putin testing our red lines? When in Asia, how would we respond strategically to questions about Taiwan?

I prosecuted Nazis at Nuremberg. Here's how to go after Putin and his thugs.

The second option his advisers should develop in advance are strategies for when the president sails the ship of state into unchartered waters. Instead of enduring this constant scramble to clean up his comments, which often involves hours and even days of uncomfortable silence or inadequate clarifications, they could have responses at the ready.

Should the president suggest we are ready to fight for Taiwan, here’s how we should describe that strategy, balancing both the reality of his remarks and the current position of our policy. But we should not pretend they don't exist.

Instead, as a recent NBC News report documents, Biden's team attempts to perform rhetorical gymnastics to suggest that he didn't in fact say something distinctly different. The president rightfully worries that they are undermining the power of his words.

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Sometimes, the president's experience and overconfidence do not serve him well. Decades doing diplomacy have led to Biden developing pretty rigid perceptions and policy positions. He is often stuck in outdated notions of how the world works. Repeatedly, we have watched him stick to his guns, even as events in places like Kabul radically changed.

National security process challenges

After the botched pullout of American forces from Afghanistan, I wrote here last summer why the national security adviser should be removed from his position. He remains, and so do the process problems.

We’ve witnessed them in the lack of preparedness to defend Ukraine. The coordination challenges were also on full display during the disastrous rollout of the submarine deal with Australia, which endangered our alliance with France at an extraordinarily fragile point.  They remain in the administration’s inability to bring Afghan refugees to safety.

There is also the embarrassing last minute and lackluster work going into this week's Summit of the Americas that we are hosting for the first time in nearly 30 years.

Former NATO commander: As Mariupol is destroyed, NATO must make it clear to Putin that he will not win.

I saw Russians as victims of ignoble leaders. Then came the rage of their war in Ukraine.

The national security team does deserve credit for working to rally the world toward a strong stand against Russia. Yet, much of that momentum began only after Moscow moved into Ukraine, shaking the foundations of European stability and security, which helped move most of them to take tougher positions.

Indeed, despite a $33 billion Ukrainian aid package that passed through Congress, we still see too little American leadership in key areas of the conflict, including a plan for how it ends and how we will rebuild Ukraine and other vulnerable nations near Russia. The administration also inexplicably failed to nominate an ambassador to Kyiv until after the invasion.

US needs diplomatic discipline

This is an extraordinarily dangerous time for the United States and our allies. It requires a strong and consistent level of diplomatic discipline. I fear that anything less could lead us unnecessarily into a conflict, whether with China, Iran, Russia or North Korea.

At the very least, from our own hemisphere to the Asia Pacific region, we have unnecessarily undermined our standing and irresponsibly handed propaganda points to our adversaries. Something needs to fundamentally change in how this White House deals with diplomacy.

Biden needs to reset the whole national security team. They have repeatedly shown an inability to execute and to staff him effectively.  We need more experienced leaders who can speak truth to power and implement our foreign policy without so many fumbles.

Brett Bruen was director of global engagement in the Obama White House. He is now president of Global Situation Room, a public relations firm, and adjunct professor of crisis communications at Georgetown University. Follow him on Twitter: @BrettBruen

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: President Joe Biden's comments are hurting his presidency