Biden claims Israel’s response to Hamas is “Over the top”
Feb 9, 2024 20:40:37 GMT -5
Post by shalom on Feb 9, 2024 20:40:37 GMT -5
In confused tirade, Biden claims Israel’s response to Hamas is “Over the top”
Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz
ADAM ELIYAHU BERKOWITZ
US-ISRAEL RELATIONS
FEBRUARY 9, 2024
US President Joe Biden criticized Israel at a media event on Thursday in which he criticized Israel’s response to Hamas. At the same time, confused Egypt with Mexico, marking the third gaffe the president made in public this week.
The president gave a brief address to the nation from the White House Thursday night and answered questions.
“I’m of the view, as you know, that the conduct of the response in the Gaza Strip has been over the top,” Biden told reporters at the White House.
“I’m pushing very hard now to deal with this hostage ceasefire. There are a lot of innocent people who are starving, a lot of innocent people who are in trouble and dying and it’s gotta stop,” he said.
Biden proceeded to refer to Egyptian President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi as the “president of Mexico.”
“As you know, initially, the president of Mexico Sisi [sic] did not want to open up the gate to allow humanitarian material to get in [to Gaza]. I talked to him. I convinced him to open the gate,” the president said.
The White House declined to clarify Biden’s remarks.
This is the third gaffe this week for the 81-year-old POTUS. On Sunday, he claimed to have met with François Mitterrand, a French president who died in 1996, at his first Group of Seven (G7) meeting in 2021. On Wednesday, Biden recalled speaking with the late German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, despite Kohl dying in 2017, at that same G7 meeting. Perhaps most concerning of all are Biden’s recent assertions that his son Beau died in Iraq when everyone in the country knows he died of a brain tumor, and Biden started his Cancer Moonshot program in his memory.
Rather than representing a source of concern, the memory challenges of the president are being used by the White House for political protection. Earlier in the day, Special Counsel Robert Hur released his report, which found that the president did mishandle classified documents but Hur did not recommend criminal charges. Those records included classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan, among other records related to national security and foreign policy which Hur said implicated “sensitive intelligence sources and methods.”
Hur described Biden as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory”, explaining that “it would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him” of a serious felony “that requires a mental state of willfulness,” and said Biden would be “well into his eighties” by then.
Hur said on Thursday that the president had twice failed to recall when he had served as vice president under Barack Obama, and had forgotten the date his son Beau died.
When asked about his memory at the press conference, Biden responded angrily that his memory was “fine”.
When reached for a comment, White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates referred Fox News Digital to a post from The Atlantic staff writer Yair Rosenberg.
“Biden has gaffed names his entire career. In 2008, he introduced his running mate as ‘the next president of the United States, Barack America.’ He was clearly talking about Egypt, named Sisi, and laid out his policy and the broader issues in detail. Twitter just isn’t interested,” Rosenberg wrote, along with a video of House Speaker Mike Johnson mixing up Israel and Iran on Sunday.
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Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz
ADAM ELIYAHU BERKOWITZ
US-ISRAEL RELATIONS
FEBRUARY 9, 2024
US President Joe Biden criticized Israel at a media event on Thursday in which he criticized Israel’s response to Hamas. At the same time, confused Egypt with Mexico, marking the third gaffe the president made in public this week.
The president gave a brief address to the nation from the White House Thursday night and answered questions.
“I’m of the view, as you know, that the conduct of the response in the Gaza Strip has been over the top,” Biden told reporters at the White House.
“I’m pushing very hard now to deal with this hostage ceasefire. There are a lot of innocent people who are starving, a lot of innocent people who are in trouble and dying and it’s gotta stop,” he said.
Biden proceeded to refer to Egyptian President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi as the “president of Mexico.”
“As you know, initially, the president of Mexico Sisi [sic] did not want to open up the gate to allow humanitarian material to get in [to Gaza]. I talked to him. I convinced him to open the gate,” the president said.
The White House declined to clarify Biden’s remarks.
This is the third gaffe this week for the 81-year-old POTUS. On Sunday, he claimed to have met with François Mitterrand, a French president who died in 1996, at his first Group of Seven (G7) meeting in 2021. On Wednesday, Biden recalled speaking with the late German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, despite Kohl dying in 2017, at that same G7 meeting. Perhaps most concerning of all are Biden’s recent assertions that his son Beau died in Iraq when everyone in the country knows he died of a brain tumor, and Biden started his Cancer Moonshot program in his memory.
Rather than representing a source of concern, the memory challenges of the president are being used by the White House for political protection. Earlier in the day, Special Counsel Robert Hur released his report, which found that the president did mishandle classified documents but Hur did not recommend criminal charges. Those records included classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan, among other records related to national security and foreign policy which Hur said implicated “sensitive intelligence sources and methods.”
Hur described Biden as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory”, explaining that “it would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him” of a serious felony “that requires a mental state of willfulness,” and said Biden would be “well into his eighties” by then.
Hur said on Thursday that the president had twice failed to recall when he had served as vice president under Barack Obama, and had forgotten the date his son Beau died.
When asked about his memory at the press conference, Biden responded angrily that his memory was “fine”.
When reached for a comment, White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates referred Fox News Digital to a post from The Atlantic staff writer Yair Rosenberg.
“Biden has gaffed names his entire career. In 2008, he introduced his running mate as ‘the next president of the United States, Barack America.’ He was clearly talking about Egypt, named Sisi, and laid out his policy and the broader issues in detail. Twitter just isn’t interested,” Rosenberg wrote, along with a video of House Speaker Mike Johnson mixing up Israel and Iran on Sunday.
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