The president has come under extraordinary pressure, including from members of his own party, to limit shipments of arms amid a humanitarian crisis in Gaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Until now, the president had resisted those calls and strongly supported Israel\u2019s efforts to go after Hamas. Yet a looming invasion of Rafah<\/a>, the city in southern Gaza where more than a million Palestinian civilians have been sheltering, appears to have shifted the president\u2019s calculus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hatem Khaled\/Reuters<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n A Palestinian man watches smoke rise following Israeli strikes in the eastern part of Rafah on May 7.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re not walking away from Israel\u2019s security. We\u2019re walking away from Israel\u2019s ability to wage war in those areas,\u201d Biden said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Biden said while the US would continue to provide defensive weapons to Israel, including for its Iron Dome air defense system, other shipments would end should a major ground invasion of Rafah begin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to continue to make sure Israel is secure in terms of Iron Dome and their ability to respond to attacks that came out of the Middle East recently,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s, it\u2019s just wrong. We\u2019re not going to \u2013 we\u2019re not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Already, the US has paused a shipment of \u201chigh-payload munitions\u201d due to Israel\u2019s possible operations in Rafah without a plan for the civilians there, according to the Pentagon, though it said a final decision<\/a> on that shipment hadn\u2019t been made. The administration has said it is reviewing the potential sale or transfer of other munitions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Israeli officials privately expressed to US officials \u201cdeep frustration\u201d on the pause in shipments as well as the US media briefings on the decision, according to a source briefed on the matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Biden\u2019s public linking of American weapons shipments to Israel\u2019s conduct could widen a rift between himself and Netanyahu, with whom he spoke by phone on Monday. That conversation came as Israel ordered the evacuation of tens of thousands of civilians from Rafah and launched strikes near border areas of the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Biden said Israel\u2019s actions in Rafah had not yet crossed a red line of entering heavily populated zones, even if their actions had caused tensions in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey haven\u2019t gone into the population centers. What they did is right on the border. And it\u2019s causing problems with, right now, in terms of \u2013 with Egypt, which I\u2019ve worked very hard to make sure we have a relationship and help,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said he had conveyed to Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders that American support for operations in population centers was limited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019ve made it clear to Bibi and the war cabinet: They\u2019re not going to get our support, if in fact they go on these population centers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Later, Biden described warning Netanyahu about the risks of becoming bogged down in Gaza, drawing parallels to the American experience in Afghanistan and Iraq.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI said to Bibi, \u2018Don\u2019t make the same mistake we made in America. We wanted to get bin Laden. We\u2019ll help you get Sinwar,\u2019\u201d he said, referring to the Hamas leader in Gaza. \u201cIt made sense to get bin Laden; it made no sense to try and unify Afghanistan. It made no sense in my view to engage in thinking that in Iraq they had a nuclear weapon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The conflict in the Middle East has consumed much of Biden\u2019s time over the past months, even as he works to promote his domestic record to American voters. His strong support for Israel has generated protests and anger, including on college campuses and at his events, where signs have labeled him \u201cGenocide Joe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Asked about the demonstrations, Biden said Wednesday: \u201cAbsolutely, I hear the message.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But he warned against protests that veer into hate speech or antisemitism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere is a legitimate right to free speech and protest. There\u2019s a legitimate right to do that, and they have a right to do that,\u201d he said. \u201cBut there\u2019s not a lesson legit legitimate right to use hate speech. There\u2019s not a legitimate right to threaten Jewish students. There is not a legitimate right to block people\u2019s access to class. That\u2019s against the law.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Biden was speaking Wednesday in Racine, Wisconsin, where he\u2019d just promoted new economic investments that could result in thousands of new jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the CNN interview, he sought to reframe perceptions of the American economy,<\/a> touting strong job growth and efforts to combat corporate greed while questioning surveys showing voters still pessimistic about the country\u2019s direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019ve already turned it around,\u201d Biden said, responding to a question on whether, less than six months before Election Day, he was running short on time to improve his standing among Americans on his handling of the economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Biden pointed to surveys showing many Americans view their own economic situation favorably, even as they look negatively on the nationwide economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe polling data has been wrong all along,\u201d he said, questioning the effectiveness of phone surveys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And he said his own record on job creation following the Covid-19 pandemic was as clear an indication as any that conditions had markedly improved for American workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe idea that we\u2019re in a situation where things are so bad that folks \u2013 I mean, we\u2019ve created more jobs. We\u2019re in a situation where people have access to good paying jobs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mandel Ngan\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n President Joe Biden speaks about his Investing in America agenda, at Gateway Technical College in Sturtevant, Wisconsin, on May 8, 2024. Biden is highlighting a major investment by Microsoft in Racine, Wisconsin, a city on the shores of Lake Michigan, as part of the president’s plan of “growing the economy from the middle-out and bottom-up,” the White House said.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, he acknowledged there were good reasons for Americans to worry, including the cost of goods and housing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe last I saw, the combination of the inflation, the cost of inflation, all those things, that\u2019s really worrisome to people, with good reason,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019m working very hard to bring the cost of rentals down, to increase the number of homes that are available,\u201d he went on. \u201cLet me say it this way \u2013 when I started this administration, people were saying there\u2019s going to be a collapse to the economy. We have the strongest economy in the world. Let me say it again \u2013 in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Biden has spent much of the last year working to promote his economic accomplishments, including new investments made possible by infrastructure and manufacturing legislation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That includes in Wisconsin, where he spoke Wednesday at a site where his predecessor Donald Trump once promoted an investment by the Taiwan-based electronics giant Foxconn that later failed.\u201cHe\u2019s never succeeded in creating jobs, and I\u2019ve never failed,\u201d Biden said in the interview, adding later: \u201cWhen has he even done anything he said? I\u2019m not being facetious. Think about it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Biden voiced little concern about his reelection prospects in the interview. But he warned Trump was unlikely to accept the results of the election if he loses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI promise you he won\u2019t,\u201d Biden said, \u201cwhich is dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Asked what advice his former boss, President Barack Obama, had provided in their conversations about the race, Biden said it was simply to \u201ckeep doing what I\u2019m doing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think I\u2019m feeling good about the trajectory of the campaign,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd you know as well I do, most people don\u2019t really focus and make up their minds until the fall. There\u2019s a lot going on, and we\u2019ll see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But surveys have shown voters giving Biden little credit for his economic record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In CNN\u2019s most recent poll<\/a>, Biden\u2019s approval ratings for the economy (34%) and inflation (29%) remain starkly negative, as voters say economic concerns are more important to them when choosing a candidate than they were in each of the past two presidential contests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Biden said on Wednesday that \u201cno president has had the run we\u2019ve had in terms of creating jobs and bringing down inflation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt was 9% when I came to office. 9%. But look, people have a right to be concerned. Ordinary people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Inflation actually peaked at 9.1% in June 2022<\/a>. In January 2021, when Biden was sworn in, it was 1.4%.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n He touted his efforts to combat fees \u2014 including on bank accounts and credit cards \u2014 that the White House has said will lower Americans\u2019 bills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe idea that you bounce a check and you get a $30 fee for bouncing the check? I changed that \u2013 can\u2019t charge more than eight bucks for that. Or your credit card. Your late payment. $35. I mean, there\u2019s corporate greed going on out there and its got to be dealt with,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Kevin Liptak, CNN President Joe Biden said for the first time Wednesday he would halt some shipments of American weapons to Israel \u2013 which he acknowledged have been used to kill civilians in Gaza \u2013 if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders a major invasion of the city of Rafah. \u201cCivilians have been killed in Gaza …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":11405,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172,184,307],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-172","category-international-issues","category-main-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11404"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11407,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11404\/revisions\/11407"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/media.cnn.com\/api\/v1\/images\/stellar\/prod\/d4b5aba8-a5a7-4d02-9236-6bcbbc24a160.jpg?c=original\" "\\"A")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nA potential rift<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Biden fights economic perceptions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/media.cnn.com\/api\/v1\/images\/stellar\/prod\/gettyimages-2151478352.jpg?c=original\" "\\"President")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nLooking ahead to November<\/h2>\n\n\n\n