It Seems Biden May Have Finally Had Enough of Netanyahu

As Benjamin Netanyahu arrives in Washington, D.C., this week with a plan to address Congress, he may not be meeting with President Joe Biden.

Citing a source in the Israeli prime minister’s office, Axios’s Barak Ravid reports that Netanyahu’s meeting with Biden, originally scheduled for Tuesday, isn’t expected to happen.

“We are still waiting for an answer from the White House,” the official said.

Only last week, the White House said that Biden was expected to meet with Netanyahu this week, despite the president being diagnosed with Covid-19 on Wednesday. Now that Biden has withdrawn from the race, circumstances seem to have changed, although it’s possible he may still be experiencing symptoms from the virus.

Netanyahu is scheduled to address Congress on Wednesday, despite a backlash and calls to boycott the address from Democrats. Some Democrats have reportedly discussed attending the speech but protesting or disrupting it in some way, and Speaker Mike Johnson has threatened police action in response.

But the most conspicuous action at Netanyahu’s address might be Vice President Kamala Harris’s absence. The Biden campaign scheduled Harris to speak at a campaign event in Indianapolis, likely not by accident, which, coupled with the possibility of Biden choosing to meet with Netanyahu, could signal a shift in U.S. policy toward Israel, or at least toward Netanyahu.

Biden’s support for Netanyahu and Israel’s brutal war in Gaza cost him a lot of support, particularly from young people and communities of color, and may have been a contributing factor in his decision to withdraw from the presidential race. Netanyahu is arriving in Washington as the International Criminal Court has filed for arrest warrants for him, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and top Hamas leaders over accusations of war crimes. Is Biden finally seeking the wisdom of cutting ties with Bibi? If so, the next step is to take action to push for a cease-fire and cut off weapons shipments to Israel.

J.D. Vance’s weird, anti-woke punch line fell flat at his own sleepy speaking event on Monday.

Vance held a rally at his former high school in Middletown, Ohio, where hundreds gathered to hear the views of Donald Trump’s newly minted vice presidential candidate. But even as a hometown hero, the Ohio senator suffered some brutally awkward moments.

“It is the weirdest thing to me: Democrats say that it is racist to believe—well, they say it’s racist to do anything,” said Vance. “I had a diet Mountain Dew yesterday, and one today. I’m sure they’re probably gonna call that racist too.” Around the room there were some scattered laughs.

“It’s good,” he said after a beat, drawing more polite laughter from the rally attendees. Vance let out his own breathy laugh at his comment, slapping the podium in front of him. “I love you guys,” he said, smiling and laughing.

Vance’s weak swing at a joke landed as a lazy attempt to score some culture-war points. And that wasn’t the only cringey moment during his time on stage. While there was a lot of laughter throughout Vance’s 40-minute speech, much of it appeared to come from him.

“I was told I was going to get to debate Kamala Harris; now President Trump is going to get to debate her?” Vance said, laughing again. At one point, he lost his train of thought after the crowd began to boo Harris, and started nervously laughing again.

While this would escape the interest of any normal person, it’s worth noting because his running mate has repeatedly called Vice President Kamala Harris “Laughing Kamala.” Like Vance’s quip about diet soda, this approach to criticism seems to stem from having absolutely nothing of substance to say about a subject, but giving it their best shot anyway.

Overall, the Republican’s performance was so underwhelming that even Fox News stopped airing coverage of Vance’s speech in the middle of his remarks.

Vance’s speech at the Republican National Convention last week was similarly kind of boring. At the time, it seemed like it could be an intentional play not to overshadow Trump, which the former president famously hates. But with Vance’s most recent display, it seems that sluggish performance might’ve been unavoidable.

Kamala Harris will most likely not appear beside Benjamin Netanyahu when he speaks to Congress this week. Former senior Biden administration officials say that was likely by design.

Harris declined to attend Netanyahu’s joint address later this week, Axios journalist Juliegrace Brufke reported Monday. And the decision was made before Joe Biden announced he was withdrawing from the 2024 race.

The vice president would have sat directly behind Netanyahu’s podium during the Wednesday event. Instead, last week, Biden’s campaign had scheduled her to speak in Indianapolis.

“That probably wasn’t an accident,” a former senior administration official told The Times of Israel. The source theorized that Biden may keep Harris away from the White House while Netanyahu is in town to avoid images that feature Harris associating with the Israeli prime minister. This would mark a significant shift in U.S. policy, if appearing with Netanyahu is suddenly viewed as a bad thing.

At the same time, Harris is receiving flack from Zionist organizations over comments she made about student protests in support of Palestine in an interview with The Nation earlier this month. The Zionist Organization of America accused Harris of endorsing “Arab Islamist criminality,” among other racist remarks.

However, a current U.S. official said that a future Harris administration’s policies on Palestine won’t differ much from Biden’s. “Vice President Harris shares President Biden’s support for an iron-clad U.S. commitment to Israel’s security coupled with a commitment to advancing a two-state solution in order to bring an end to this cycle of violence,” the official said, speaking anonymously.

But Biden may also snub Netanyahu. A senior official in his office told reporters that Netanyahu may not meet with the U.S. president after all. Meanwhile, a record number of Democrats are set to boycott Netanyahu’s speech.

Representative Nancy Pelosi is throwing her “enthusiastic support” behind Kamala Harris for president.

“Today, it is with immense pride and limitless optimism for our country’s future that I endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for President of the United States,” Pelosi wrote in a statement Monday. “My enthusiastic support for Kamala Harris for President is official, personal and political.”

Despite holding off a day longer than other Democrats, the fellow Bay Area politician has made clear she approves of Joe Biden’s decision to step down and hand the torch to Harris.

“Officially, I have seen Kamala Harris’s strength and courage as a champion for working families, notably fighting for a woman’s right to choose. Personally, I have known Kamala Harris for decades as rooted in strong values, faith and a commitment to public service,” she wrote. “Politically, make no mistake: Kamala Harris as a woman in politics is brilliantly astute—and I have full confidence that she will lead us to victory in November.”

After Biden dropped out, Pelosi and Harris spoke by phone on Sunday, according to Axios.

Though Pelosi never officially called for Biden to step down, she played a critical role in strong-arming him to bow out. Privately, Pelosi warned Biden about the ripple effects for other Democrats on the ballot. Additionally, she appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe saying she wanted Biden “to do whatever he decides to do,” while at the time Biden had made clear he planned to remain in the race.

While much of the Democratic establishment is falling in line behind Harris, those yet to endorse her include former President Barack Obama, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spoke with Donald Trump earlier this month about getting a job in the White House in exchange for endorsing him as president.

The Washington Post reported Monday that in the hours after Trump’s attempted assassination last week, Kennedy received a message from the former president’s team asking to talk. At the time, Kennedy had been giving interviews about the attack.

Later that night, the two men spoke on the phone, and weighed the price of Kennedy’s support: a job in Trump’s administration. But apparently Kennedy’s job interview quickly fell apart.

Some on Trump’s team were reportedly concerned about offering the independent candidate an official role in return for his endorsement, according to sources who spoke with the Post on the condition of anonymity. So nothing materialized for either candidate.

A segment of a phone call between Kennedy and Trump was previously leaked on social media, in which the former president could be heard claiming that vaccines cause autism. Although Kennedy insisted before Congress last summer that he had “never been anti-vaxx,” he previously claimed that there was “no vaccine that was safe and effective,” and said he believed vaccines cause autism.

“I would love you to do something,” Trump said during that call. “And I think it would be so good for you. And so big for you. And we’re going to win. We’re going to win. We’re way ahead of the guy.” It was previously unclear what exactly Trump was referring to, but now it seems likely they were talking about a potential gig for the conspiracy-touting independent.

Kennedy apologized for the leak, and on Monday, he began praising Trump. “I have a lot of respect for President Trump for reaching out to me. Nobody from the DNC, high or low, has ever reached out to me in 18 months. Instead they have allocated millions to try to disrupt my campaign,” he said in an interview with the Post.

He added that he would continue his campaign.

A Trump spokesperson tried to downplay the significance of the meeting between the two. “President Trump met with RFK and they had a conversation about the issues just as he does regularly with important figures in business and politics because they all recognize he will be the next president of the United States,” said Danielle Alvarez.