Joe Biden offered a bizarre response to an Israeli journalist who asked him if he thought he could make a deal to free the hostages held by Palestinian militant group Hamas before he leaves office in January.
“Do you think you can keep from getting hit in the head by that camera behind you?” the president told Neria Kraus, a correspondent for Israel’s Channel 13 News, apparently referring to the equipment of the crew recording the meeting. He immediately launched into a different topic after the remark.
Kraus, who asked the question at a press conference with Biden and Israeli President Isaac Herzog ahead of the pair’s meeting on Tuesday, shared a video of the baffling exchange in an X post that has since gone viral.
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Response to the clip on social media ranged from confusion to outrage.
“You asked a valid question about something which has both urgent humanitarian and geopolitical repercussions,” wrote X user @_manishkapoor. “It’s inexplicable why he chose to answer in this unserious way.”
“Flippant response from our President,” wrote @kitty_jps1989. “Unbelievable.”
Biden has been vocal about his desire to negotiate a hostage deal, and ultimately a ceasefire, before the end of his term.
Of the approximately 250 hostages taken by Hamas when it attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, over 60 are still being held in Gaza, along with the bodies of 35 others. Seven of the remaining hostages hold American citizenship, according to The New York Times.
In early September, Biden said publicly that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not doing enough to broker a deal to return the hostages or secure a ceasefire.
The public side of Biden’s Tuesday conversation with Herzog, the Israeli president, touched on America’s ongoing efforts to bring the hostages home.
“I know, Mr. President, that you are—day-in, day-out—actively seeking their safe return home as they are going through hell in the dungeons of Gaza,” Herzog said to Biden. “Clearly, you’re thinking and working about the day after as well, which perhaps should be a trajectory of hope to the people of the region and the ability to have our neighbors, as well as us, live in security and peace.
“But first and foremost, we have to get the hostages back home,” Herzog added, to which Biden agreed.
