During a White House press briefing on Monday, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about President Biden’s comments about Israel and withholding aid for Israel.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 At a fundraiser over the weekend, the President began his remarks by talking about Israel.
00:07 He said, "Israel said it's up to Hamas.
00:08 If they wanted to do it, we could end it tomorrow.
00:10 It all has to do..." and then he cut himself off and said, "I shouldn't get into all of
00:15 this.
00:16 I don't want to get going."
00:17 Can you just finish the sentence for us?
00:18 I don't know what he was trying to say, but especially what he was talking about, "It
00:23 all has to do with..."
00:24 I'm obviously, as I say often, certainly going to let the President speak for himself.
00:30 But he did it better speaking for himself.
00:32 I know, I know.
00:33 But I...
00:34 Look, I think, obviously, Jake Sullivan, the National Security Advisor, came here and gave
00:40 a very good and detailed, in-depth lay-down of where we are.
00:45 And it's very much where the President is.
00:48 And he talked about humanitarian aid, obviously, the importance of getting that into Gaza,
00:53 and how we want to make sure that we deal with what we're seeing there with the dire
00:58 situation in Gaza.
00:59 Obviously, he talks about our continued support.
01:02 He talked about our continued support for Israel's security.
01:05 That is ironclad.
01:07 That is what we want to make sure that they are able to defend themselves.
01:11 And so I think all of that remains to be true.
01:13 Hostage deal, we want to get to a ceasefire, and also create a situation where we can get
01:17 more of that humanitarian aid, bring hostages home.
01:20 So all of that continues to be true.
01:22 I think the words that you heard from the President's National Security Advisor, I think,
01:27 is very clear on where the President is.
01:29 I can't speak beyond that.
01:35 And I think the President started out saying what was on his mind, but more broadly, how
01:42 - where we are with the situation in Gaza and Israel has been very clear.
01:47 And we want to continue to lay that out.
01:48 That is one of the reasons that Jake came out here.
01:51 And a quick one.
01:52 The House is likely to vote on the Israel Security Assistance and Support Act later
01:55 this week, which would ban the administration from withholding military aid to Israel that
01:59 has been congressionally approved.
02:01 Is that something that - it's obviously a response to the President's comments over
02:04 the last week, so is that something that the White House would oppose?
02:06 Are you talking to Democrats who might be inclined to go with Republicans on this?
02:10 So look, I'll start off.
02:13 I just repeated basically what I wanted to say to this question, which is this President
02:19 has been very clear his commitment to Israel's security is ironclad.
02:23 That has not changed.
02:24 We share Israel's goal of defeating Hamas and will continue to stand with Israel to
02:30 make that happen.
02:31 We've been very clear.
02:32 As it relates to the announcement that the President made in the interview last week
02:38 on CNN, we have paused only one shipment that includes 2,000 pounds bombs, which can be
02:44 very destructive in densely populated urban environments such as Rafah.
02:49 We heard, obviously, Jake just speak to this.
02:53 And then so regarding this bill, as you just asked me about, Sung Min, we strongly, strongly
02:57 oppose attempts to constrain the President's ability to deploy U.S. security assistance
03:02 consistent with U.S. foreign policy and national security objectives.
03:06 It is our objective as well that we plan to spend every last cent appropriated consistent
03:12 with legal obligations, including in the recent supplemental, that national security supplemental
03:17 that was just passed and the President obviously signed.
03:20 We are committed to that supplemental.
03:23 So that has not changed.