With war waging in Israel and a confirmed American death toll of nine so far, President Joe Biden has gone radio silent as he has yet to comment on the loss of U.S. lives.
Biden delivered extremely brief remarks on Saturday condemning the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, but he maintained a clear schedule on Monday despite confirmation of American deaths in the conflict.
Meanwhile, other world leaders publicly expressed support for the Jewish State.
Additionally, on Sunday the President was briefed that Americans had been killed by Hamas fighting – but Biden still went forward with hosting a staff BBQ at the White House with a live band.
On Monday morning, the White House communications office called a ‘lid’, meaning that Biden and his staff would not hold any events for the press as the world turned to the U.S. President to hear about the loss of life.
President Joe Biden has remained radio silent after news broke Monday that nine Americans were killed in Hamas’ terrorist attack in Israel over the weekend. The White House announced a ‘lid,’ meaning Biden will not be appearing before the American people to remark on the loss of life
‘You’ve got to be sh****ing me?!? It’s Monday at noon,’ Donald Trump Jr. posted to X upon hearing news the president doesn’t have any public events for the day.
He added: ‘Our greatest ally in the Middle East is at war, women and children are being slaughtered and raped in the streets, and our imbecile president is checking out before lunch?’
Following intense backlash, the White House was forced to release a detailed account of what Biden is doing Monday to respond to the conflict, including meeting earlier in the morning with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Principal Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer, Homeland Security Advisor Liz Sherwood-Randall, and White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zient
‘He directed his team to follow up on coordination with Israel on all aspects of the crisis and to continue their work with regional partners to warn anyone who might seek to take advantage in this situation,’ a statement provided to the press reads.
‘This afternoon, President Biden will be speaking with several of our close allies about the latest developments in Israel and we will have more to share soon.’
In the last two days, Biden has posted several tweets from the official POTUS account about a wide variety of topics including student debt relief, taxing billionaires, creating good-paying union jobs and backing technology innovations.
He did post once on X about the ongoing conflict, writing: ‘This morning, I spoke with
[Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] to express my full support for the people of Israel in the face of an unprecedented and appalling assault by Hamas terrorists.’
‘We will remain in close contact over the coming days,’ the president assured in the Sunday post. ‘The U.S. will continue to stand with the people of Israel.’
Instead of hearing from Biden on Monday regarding the American deaths, White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates released a statement slamming Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairwoman Ronn McDaniel for using the violence as an ‘opportunity’ to put the blame on the president.
‘At least nine Americans have lost their lives in these brutal terrorist attacks against the State of Israel. Hundreds of additional innocent people are dead,’ Bates wrote in a statement.
He added: ‘While apparently some individuals like Ronna McDaniel consider this loss of life and pain a great opportunity, most Americans see it as a horrific tragedy.’
‘As the administration provides assistance to the Israeli Defense Force, this is a moment in which all Americans, regardless of political views, should stand shoulder to shoulder with one of our closest allies. No one can ever welcome this kind of hideous behavior or try to divide our country when we need to be united.’
Republicans were quick to claim that Biden’s three-minute remarks on Saturday were not enough to show the extent of the U.S. support for Israel.
Hamas terrorists based in Palestinian enclave of Gaza launched a multi-front terrorist attack in Israel on Saturday, killing 900 Israelis in the three days so far of conflict
Pro-Palestinian protesters convened outside the White House over the weekend to seemingly show support for the heinous attacks against the Jewish State
They also blame Biden for the attack and say his un-freezing of $6 billion to Iran last month in exchange for the release of five Americans detained in Tehran is what funded the Hamas attacks.
Biden notably announced the release of these funds from the frozen account in South Korea on the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks last month.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken insisted that he has yet to see evidence Iran ‘directed or was behind’ the Hamas attack.
Matt Miller, Department of State spokesperson, echoed the sentiment on Monday that there is no ‘direct intelligence’ that shows Iran was ‘directly involved in this terrorist attack.’
‘But that said, Iran has been a longtime supporter of Hamas,’ Miller clarified. ‘That’s why we’ve taken action to hold Iran accountable for its support of Hamas and other terrorist organizations.’
‘We will continue to examine what information we can about what directly led to these attacks and whether Iran or any other country may have been involved,’ he told CNN. ‘But at this point, we don’t have any evidence to confirm that.’
White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates did release a statement on Monday regarding the los of U.S. lives in Israel – but took the short statement to attack RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel
Iran’s United Nations mission has denied Tehran’s involvement in Hamas’ terrorist operation.
It is unclear how many American citizens were injured in the attacks, and whether any are being held hostage by the Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip.
While the names of those killed are not yet released, State Department spokesman Matt Miller said Monday morning that the agency is in touch with their families ‘and providing all appropriate consular assistance.’
‘We cannot confirm that [Americans were taken hostage] at this point,’ he told CNN. ‘There are reports of that, but there are Americans who are unaccounted for, and our first priority is to locate those Americans, find out what their status is in the coming hours and days.’
As of Monday afternoon, more than 900 Israelis are confirmed dead – and on Sunday it was revealed more than 2,000 were injured in the attack. This does not include those still being held hostage in Gaza, the number of which is unknown but thought to be in the hundreds at least.
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