No new intelligence led to President Joe Biden saying on Thursday that the risk of nuclear “Armageddon” is at the highest level since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, a White House spokeswoman said Friday. Briefing reporters aboard Air Force One, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said there is no information that Russia is preparing to “imminently” use nuclear weapons in its war against Ukraine. Speaking at a Democratic Party fundraiser, Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin was “a guy I know fairly well” and the Russian leader was “not joking when he talks about the use of tactical nuclear weapons or biological or chemical weapons.” Jean-Pierre said Biden was criticizing Putin’s comments about nuclear weapons.
