The rhetorically controlled leader of the free world doesn’t always make news. But fresh off Thursday’s State of the Union address, President Joe Biden was anything but taciturn, unleashing a torrent of headline-grabbing comments. Here are the top three “R’s” from my exclusive Biden sit-down over the weekend.
A ‘red line’
I asked the president whether an invasion of the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip would be a red line in the context of his relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. His “yes” led to a rebuke from Netanyahu, who told Politico Europe on Sunday that Biden’s comments would not stop him from pushing ahead with an offensive.
This back-and-forth highlights how the barely concealed tension between these two leaders has been pushed into the sunlight. The world now watches to see whether Netanyahu will follow through and attack Rafah as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan is underway. And the world will watch for Biden’s response if Netanyahu does. The humanitarian crisis gripping Gaza could get much worse. Because of Israeli bombardment of northern Gaza, more than 1.5 million people have fled to Rafah, which had a pre-war population of 275,000. With Egypt building a wall on its border with Gaza, an invasion would give Palestinian refugees nowhere to go.
A return
Biden went to Israel on Oct. 18 in a show of support. Five months later, some have suggested that he return and address the Knesset, the Israeli parliament. When I asked the president whether that was something he would support, he responded in the affirmative. His quick “yes” surprised me — as did his decision not to discuss the matter further.
His quick pivot suggests that my shot-in-the-dark query might be more on the mark than I had anticipated. So keep your eyes and ears open for a Biden return to Israel. What’s unclear is from whom the invitation would come. The president expressed “regret” for using the word “illegal” in responding during his State of the Union speech to the heckling of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., over the killing of Laken Riley. Growing rumblings from Latinos over Biden’s use of a word that has been used by the right to dehumanize migrants made his contrition necessary. But the president also quickly moved on to defend the dignity of people making their way to this country. This is a stark contrast to the broadly offensive brushstrokes used by Donald Trump and the far right. And the immediate negative reaction Biden’s comments elicited from Trump and the conservative press told me they plan to keep trying to make border security an election-year liability for the incumbent chief executive.
Jonathan Capehart
Jonathan Capehart is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and co-host of MS NOW’s “The Weekend,” airing Saturdays and Sundays from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. He is a political analyst for PBS “NewsHour” and former member of The Washington Post’s editorial board and writes an occasional newsletter on Substack. 
A regret
