Speaker of the House Mike Johnson stated President Biden’s current menace to withhold munitions shipments to Israel was utterly sudden and doubtless “off script.”
Biden stated in a Wednesday CNN interview that his administration will halt munitions shipments to Israel if the nation continues with plans to invade the city of Rafah.
“My reaction honestly was — ‘Wow, that is a complete turn from what I have been told even in, you know, recent hours,” Johnson instructed Politico in a Wednesday night time interview.
BIDEN VOWS TO WITHHOLD WEAPONS FROM ISRAEL IF NETANYAHU GOES FORWARD WITH RAFAH INVASION
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks as Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump listens throughout a information convention at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
“I mean, 24 hours ago it was confirmed to me by top administration officials that the policy’s very different than what he stated there,” he continued. “So I hope that’s a senior moment.”
The House Speaker stated he was already troubled by reviews that U.S. help to Israel could possibly be delayed earlier than Biden’s interview. He instructed Politico that Biden administration officers dismissed his considerations and stated delays had been occurring with prior tranches of weapons, not assist lately handed by the House.
Johnson speculated that Biden’s feedback might have been a “senior moment” and at odds with the remainder of the administration’s plans.
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Israeli troopers drive a tank at a staging floor close to the border with the Gaza Strip in southern Israel. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)
“I believe he’s off script,” Johnson stated. “I don’t think that’s something that staff told him to say. I hope it’s a senior moment, because that would be a great deviation in what is said to be the policy there.”
Biden told CNN’s Erin Burnett within the Wednesday interview that civilian deaths in Gaza have given him pause on supplying weapons for the deliberate Rafah invasion.
“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers,” the president stated.
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President Joe Biden speaks on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Annual Days of Remembrance ceremony on the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
“I made it clear that if they go into Rafah — they haven’t gone in Rafah yet — if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities — that deal with that problem,” Biden stated.
Fox News Digital’s Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.