Playbook: Biden’s murky Israel policy in a nutshell
By RACHAEL BADE, RYAN LIZZA and EUGENE DANIELS
05/11/2024 11:49 AM EDT
With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine
DRIVING THE DAY
ONE LAST TREAT — Here’s uncut audio of Speaker MIKE JOHNSON doing his DONALD TRUMP impression during our big sitdown on Wednesday. Please have us back, Mr. Speaker, and you can do your CLAY HIGGINS for us.
THE LATEST TROUBLE FOR TRUMP — “Trump May Owe $100 Million From Double-Dip Tax Breaks, Audit Shows,” by NYT’s Russ Buettner and ProPublica’s Paul Kiel: “The 92-story, glass-sheathed skyscraper along the Chicago River is the tallest and, at least for now, the last major construction project by Mr. Trump. Through a combination of cost overruns and the bad luck of opening in the teeth of the Great Recession, it was also a vast money loser. But when Mr. Trump sought to reap tax benefits from his losses, the I.R.S. has argued, he went too far and in effect wrote off the same losses twice.”
BIDEN ON AN ISLAND — If you’re looking for a microcosm of President JOE BIDEN’s conflicted and evolving Israel policy over the past few weeks, consider the much-anticipated report the State Department issued last night examining whether Israel used American weapons to violate human rights in Gaza.
The memorandum to Congress determined that “it is reasonable to assess” that Israel used U.S. weapons in ways that are “inconsistent” with international law. At the same time, it concluded there isn’t sufficient evidence to say so declaratively, thus finding that Israel is still eligible for U.S. military aid. Read the report
“There was a whiff of accountability but ultimately no greater reprimand, allowing the Biden administration to continue sending weapons to Israel as it fights Hamas while gingerly appeasing vocal critics,”our colleagues Nahal Toosi, Lara Seligman and Alex Ward write.
In other words, it’s precisely the kind of delicate line-walking that has annoyed and alienated voices on all sides of the Gaza conflict recently, and the findings have left Biden “increasingly isolated” in the political world, as WaPo’s Toluse Olorunnipa and Jacqueline Alemany write.
On the left: Many Democrats feel the Biden administration pulled its punches, turning a blind eye to the mass killing of civilians and dodging an opportunity to provide moral clarity. Sen. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-Md.) said the memo “fails to do the hard work of making the assessment and ducks the ultimate questions.”
One unnamed Democratic lawmaker was blunter, telling WaPo: “It reeks of cowardice — an unwillingness to state the obvious.”
On the right: Republicans continued to accuse Biden of turning his back on Israel and weakening U.S. national security in the process.
“It’s reprehensible that Biden has more criticism for Israel than the terrorists launching rockets at playgrounds,” Sen. TOM COTTON (R-Ark.) — who has declared the House “has no choice but to impeach” Biden over his handling of the situation — tweeted Friday
Idaho Sen. JIM RISCH, the top Foreign Relations Republican, accused the White House of “attempting to placate voters on the far left at the expense of a close ally in the midst of its justified war with Hamas terrorists.”
The big picture: We’re a long ways past the widespread praise Biden received from both sides of the aisle for his initial response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack that left 1,200 people dead. Now, the expanding discontent with his response threatens to become a re-election nightmare by alienating young and progressive voters and becoming a cudgel for Republicans.
The report is a telling companion to the policy pivot Biden is trying to execute this week. It keeps the option for continued offensive military aid to Israel open while he is also (1) pausing a shipment of bombs to Israeli and (2) threatening to halt additional weapons due to concerns about PM BENJAMIN NETANYAHU’s plans to invade Rafah in southern Gaza.
But the risk that the situation could spiral out of control seem obvious: Negotiators remain unable to notch a ceasefire agreement, and Netanyahu has doubled down on his insistence on a full-scale incursion into Rafah, with Biden refraining from publicly identifying what red line would cause him to cut off the flow of arms.
Related read: “Isolated and Defiant, Israel Vows to ‘Stand Alone’ in War on Hamas,” by NYT’s Damien Cave: “The complex, layered reproof from around the world cannot be ignored as just the whims of anti-Israel activists. Israel is facing real consequences, from security to economics.”
Good Saturday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza.
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NOWHERE AND EVERYWHERE — NIKKI HALEY has barely been publicly seen or heard in the two months since she suspended her presidential campaign. Yet she continues to have a huge presence in the 2024 race.
She has racked up hundreds of thousands of primary votes as a zombie candidate, with dozens of states still yet to vote. And there is new evidence this morning that both the Biden and Trump campaigns are strategizing over how to appeal to the “double-doubter” voters she is clearly attracting.
This morning, our colleagues Adam Wren, Elena Schneider and Natalie Allison report on the Biden campaign’s “larger — and mostly behind-the-scenes — strategy” to reel in those Haley voters, viewing them “as a core part of its coalition this fall, especially as polls show some erosion among traditional Democratic groups such as young voters.”
They’re targeting ads at the mainly suburban voters Haley has been attracting. They’re wooing some of her high-dollar donors and former endorsers. Trump’s campaign, on the other hand, hasn’t seemed to do much of anything — all but snubbing Haley and her followers.
But this morning, Axios’ Alex Thompson reports that might be changing: Trump, he writes, has moved his one-time rival off his “blacklist” and is again considering her as his running mate.
We are pretty damn skeptical that Trump would choose anyone but a true MAGA die-hard after his experience with MIKE PENCE. But Thompson points out there’s potential upside on both sides: Haley could help Trump with his fundraising deficiency and swing-voter problem; Haley could boost her future presidential ambitions by making amends with Trump.
But sure enough, Trump himself confirmed our instincts: Posting to Truth Social at 11:13 a.m., he wrote, “Nikki Haley is not under consideration for the V.P. slot, but I wish her well!”
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WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY
At the White House
Biden is in Washington state, where he is scheduled to participate in a campaign reception this afternoon before traveling to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, later this evening.
VP KAMALA HARRIS has nothing on her public schedule.
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