Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said President Biden’s recent threat to withhold munitions shipments to Israel was completely unexpected and probably “off script.”
Biden said in a Wednesday CNN interview that his administration will halt munitions shipments to Israel if the nation continues with plans to invade the city of Rafah.
“My reaction honestly was — ‘Wow, that is a complete turn from what I have been told even in, you know, recent hours,” Johnson told Politico in a Wednesday night interview.
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Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks as Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump listens during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
“I mean, 24 hours ago it was confirmed to me by top administration officials that the policy’s very different than what he stated there,” he continued. “So I hope that’s a senior moment.”
The House Speaker said he was already troubled by reports that U.S. support to Israel could be delayed before Biden’s interview. He told Politico that Biden administration officials dismissed his concerns and said delays were occurring with prior tranches of weapons, not aid recently passed by the House.
Johnson speculated that Biden’s comments may have been a “senior moment” and at odds with the rest of the administration’s plans.
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Israeli soldiers drive a tank at a staging ground near the border with the Gaza Strip in southern Israel. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)
“I believe he’s off script,” Johnson said. “I don’t think that’s something that staff told him to say. I hope it’s a senior moment, because that would be a great deviation in what is said to be the policy there.”
Biden told CNN’s Erin Burnett in the Wednesday interview that civilian deaths in Gaza have given him pause on supplying weapons for the planned Rafah invasion.
“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers,” the president said.
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President Joe Biden speaks at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Annual Days of Remembrance ceremony at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
“I made it clear that if they go into Rafah — they haven’t gone in Rafah yet — if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities — that deal with that problem,” Biden said.
Fox News Digital’s Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.
