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First Lady Jill Biden is pressuring her husband to adopt a more forceful posture regarding the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict in the Gaza Strip, according to a report from the New York Times.
Currently, Biden is facing political pressure to demand an end to Israel’s military actions in Gaza against Hamas, the terrorist organization that killed more than 1,200 civilians on October 7.
According to the New York Times, Biden stated that the first lady is now putting the same pressure on him during a meeting with Muslim community leaders at the White House on Tuesday. He told the attendees that she had advised him to “stop it.”
According to the NYT, Biden was reacting to a participant who said his wife had forbidden him from attending the event because of Biden’s backing of Israel’s war. A second meeting attendee, Salima Suswell, told the outlet that Biden told her he understood and that Jill had told him to “Stop it now, Joe.”
The White House informed the NYT that there was no difference of opinion between Biden and the first lady regarding the war, stating that both were equally incensed about the deaths of civilians in Gaza. The White House stated that the First Lady was not directing Biden to demand that Israel’s counteroffensive efforts end completely.
“Just like the president, the first lady is heartbroken over the attacks on aid workers and the ongoing loss of innocent lives in Gaza. They both want Israel to do more to protect civilians,” Elizabeth Alexander, Jill Biden’s communications director, told the NYT.
Jill Biden has a history of being against American interventionism in global affairs. This is partly because the president’s son, Beau Biden, served in Iraq during the late 2000s.
She reportedly became enraged when someone spoke favorably of former President George W. Bush at a White House event in late 2022.
“He sent my son to war,” Jill Biden irately told the attendee, according to NYT.
Jill Biden was a supporter of the Biden administration’s disastrous 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, which claimed the lives of hundreds of Afghani civilians in addition to 13 American soldiers.
The amount of armaments, including weapons, military planes, and operational gear, that the Biden administration left behind exceeded $7 billion.
“I think he trusts my intuition as a spouse,” she told the NYT in 2021.
Biden’s Muslim and younger voting base, as well as factions within his administration, are urging him to call for a ceasefire in the Gaza conflict. This comes after an Israeli airstrike hit an aid convoy in Gaza on Monday, killing seven workers. Biden made comments about the incident on Tuesday.
Biden was reportedly “outraged” by Israel’s mistake and may address it in his call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, according to Axios.
Biden and Netanyahu have disagreed over how to conduct the war in Gaza, causing strain in their relationship.
“Biden is pissed. The temperature regarding Bibi is very high,” a U.S. official told Axios.
Jill Biden made headlines earlier this week when she got testy on a morning show after the host mentioned a new survey showing President Biden trailing former President Donald Trump in six of seven swing states.
During an interview on “CBS Mornings,” Jill Biden was asked about the current state of her husband’s re-election campaign.
She was specifically questioned about the results of a recent Wall Street Journal survey, which found that Joe Biden is behind Trump in six of seven swing states—Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Georgia—while Biden leads by three points in Wisconsin.
CBS host Tony Dokoupil began asking the first lady about the polling results before she cut him off to say, “No, he’s not losing.”
“No, he’s not losing in all the battleground states. He’s coming up,” she blurted out before Dokoupil could finish his question.
“He’s even or doing better,” Jill added. “You know what, once people start to focus in, and they see their two choices, it’s obvious that Joe will win this election.”
She was then asked if she was at all worried about Joe being reelected: “No, no, no. I feel that Joe will be re-elected.”
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