WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is headed back to California to raise more campaign cash Friday and Saturday after he sent shockwaves around the globe with a potential landmark change to U.S. foreign policy.
Biden sat down with CNN anchor Erin Burnett Wednesday during a campaign stop in battleground Wisconsin. As he did during recent official White House and campaign events, he jabbed at Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, and defended his economic record.
The president has joked that his staff dreads when he goes off-script or veers away from the prepared remarks on a teleprompter. And he has given fewer media interviews than his recent predecessors, including Trump.
But when he does, Biden often is more candid than when he is delivering remarks from behind the presidential lectern or even answering reporters’ shouted questions, which usually generate four- or five-word answers than can raise even more questions about his policy stances.
His CNN sit-down was no exception, as Biden delivered his most blunt warning to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet. Here are three takeaways.
‘Not supplying the weapons’
Biden told the “Outfront” anchor he made clear to Israeli leaders if they conduct military operations in “population centers” inside Gaza, he would withhold U.S.-made heavy bombs.
Though his top aides in recent weeks have declined to answer reporters’ questions about Israeli military operations inside the Palestinian enclave, he acknowledged on Wednesday that those American-manufactured bombs have been used in the Israeli Defense Forces’ deadly bombardment. According to a Hamas-run health agency, almost 35,000 Palestinians have died in Israel’s military response to Hamas’ attack inside the Jewish state, which killed 1,400 people. Another 78,000 Palestinians have been wounded, according to the same agency.
“I made it clear that, if they go into Rafah —…
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