OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
President Joe Biden has a history of saying things that are factually untrue — oftentimes repeating the same falsehoods over and over — and he apparently did so again on Wednesday, according to a report.
The New York Post noted that Biden claimed to have seen “confirmed pictures of terrorists beheading children” in southern Israel after members of the Hamas terrorist organization reportedly butchered 40 babies over the weekend, but later, the White House walked back his claim.
“I never really thought that I would see and have confirmed pictures of terrorists beheading children. I never thought I’d ever — anyway,” Biden told Jewish group leaders at the White House on Wednesday.
However, the Washington Post reported that neither Biden nor other U.S. officials had actually seen such images or heard reports that were independently confirmed regarding beheaded children, according to a White House spokesperson.
The White House later claimed that Biden’s remark was premised on claims made by a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as media reports coming from Israel following the attack by Hamas.
The New York Post added:
The sickening reports emerged Tuesday as the Israeli military offered journalists tours of areas ravaged by Hamas’ Saturday morning surprise attack, which left more than 1,200 civilians and Israeli troops dead and about 150 believed abducted — with at least 22 Americans dead and 17 others still unaccounted for.
A senior White House national security aide told reporters immediately following the event that he had not seen the images to which Biden was referring.
A different White House official directed The Post to comments by Tal Heinrich, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who told CNN Wednesday that babies and toddlers were found “decapitated” in the community of Kfar Aza.
The Israeli Defense Force has confirmed the horrific report in a video that was posted Thursday to social media.
Yossi Landau, an official with Israel’s volunteer civilian emergency response organization Zaka, told CBS News that he personally encountered the bodies of babies and children who were beheaded.
“I saw a lot more that cannot be described for now because it’s very hard to describe,” he said.
A television reporter for i24NEWS, based in Tel Aviv, was the first to report the beheadings on Tuesday. In a radio interview the following day, the reporter, Nicole Zedek, expressed indignation and disbelief in the public skepticism over the allegations.
“I mean, babies’ heads cut off. That’s what they encountered when they came there. So as horrible as it is I wish that it wasn’t true,” Zedek said.
Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre slammed members of the far-left “Squad” during Tuesday’s briefing, calling what they said about the war between Israel and Hamas “wrong,” “repugnant,” and “disgraceful.”
When asked for the administration’s reaction to comments made by Democrat Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Cori Bush, Jean-Pierre said: “I’ve seen some of those statements this weekend, and we’re going to continue to be very clear. We believe they’re wrong, we believe they’re repugnant, and we believe they’re disgraceful.”
“Our condemnation belongs squarely with terrorists who have brutally murdered, raped, and kidnapped hundreds, hundreds of Israelis. There can be no equivocation about that. There are not two sides here. There are not two sides,” KJP added.
When Israel and Hamas went to war over the weekend, Tlaib and Bush made statements that caused a lot of anger when they said that the U.S. should stop helping Israel.
Tlaib’s statement said: “I grieve the Palestinian and Israeli lives lost yesterday, today, and every day,” Tlaib’s statement read. “As long as our country provides billions in unconditional funding to support the apartheid government, this heartbreaking cycle of violence will continue.”
Bush’s statement said: “As part of achieving a just and lasting peace, we must do our part to stop this violence and trauma by ending U.S. government support for Israeli military occupation and apartheid.”
