Morning Report — Biden’s Israel balancing act

by Alexis Simendinger and Kristina Karisch - 03/11/24 6:36 AM ET

President Biden is shifting his tone as Israel’s war against Hamas rages on.

The president announced during the State of the Union that the United States military will build a floating seaport to enable aid delivery to Gaza, where more than 30,000 Palestinians have died since Israel began its military campaign in October. Hundreds of thousands more face dwindling food and supplies; displaced Palestinians are struggling to feed their children (CNN).

The White House has warned Israel against a planned ground and air attack on Rafah, the city in southern Gaza where more than a million displaced Palestinians have taken refuge. U.S. officials have expressed doubt that Israel can develop an effective plan to move the civilian population out of harm’s way ahead of the assault (The Wall Street Journal).

THE LOOMING OPERATION is a potential showdown between the White House and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, which sees the assault as vital for the defeat of Hamas, whose bloody Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel sparked the war.

In a Saturday MSNBC interview, Biden said that an Israeli attack would cross a “red line” and left open the possibility that the U.S. might withhold some types of military assistance to Israel if the operation caused extensive civilian casualties.

“It is a red line, but I am never going to leave Israel. The defense of Israel is still critical. So, there is no red line I am going to cut off all weapons, so they don’t have the Iron Dome to protect them,” Biden said, referring to the antimissile interceptors. “But there’s red lines that if he crosses… You cannot have 30,000 more Palestinians dead.”

Netanyahu on Sunday reiterated that his troops would move into Rafah, saying, “We’ll go there. We’re not going to leave. You know, I have a red line. You know what the red line is, that Oct. 7 doesn’t happen again. Never happens again.”

New York magazine’s Intelligencer: Inside the Biden plan to ditch Netanyahu. The “come to Jesus moment” is already here, according to Israeli and U.S. sources.

The president has for months simultaneously called on Israel to do more to protect civilians and allow aid into Gaza via border crossings. The U.S. in recent days began conducting airdrops into Gaza to get meals and other supplies into the area, with more planned in the coming days. The airdrops and planned seaport reflect growing alarm over Gaza’s deadly humanitarian crisis and a new willingness to bypass Israeli control over land shipments. But aid officials say that air and sea deliveries can’t make up for a shortage of land routes. Aid trucks entering Gaza daily are far below the 500 entering before the war (The Hill and ABC News).

IN DOING SO, the U.S. finds itself on both sides of the war, arming Israel while trying to care for those hurt as a result. While Biden has increasingly expressed his frustration with Netanyahu — saying he is “hurting Israel more than helping” with his handling of the war with Hamas — he remains opposed to cutting off munitions or leveraging them to influence the fighting.

For many, that is not enough.

“You can’t have a policy of giving aid and giving Israel the weapons to bomb the food trucks at the same time,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) told the New York Times. “There is inherent contradiction in that. And I think the administration needs to match the genuine empathy and moral concern that came out last night for Palestinian civilian lives with real accountability for Netanyahu and the extreme right-wing government there.”

According to recent polling commissioned by the left-leaning Center for Economic and Policy Research and conducted by YouGov, 52 percent of Americans agree that the U.S. should halt arms shipments to Israel until it ends its military offensive in Gaza. Among voters who supported Biden in 2020, that number jumps to 62 percent.

And while Biden has handily won the Democratic primary in every state that has voted so far, the “uncommitted” option — which has been promoted to protest his policies in the Israel-Hamas war — is winning some delegates in a handful of states, too.

▪ The Guardian: An aid ship carrying 200 tons of food to alleviate looming famine in the Gaza Strip remained docked in Cyprus on Sunday night, which officials attributed to “technical difficulties.”

▪ The New York Times: Biden’s decision to order the military to build a floating pier that would allow aid to be delivered to Gaza means aid will be sent by the same military that is sending the weapons and bombs that Israel is using to strike Palestinians and Hamas.

CEASE-FIRE TALKS: While mediators from the U.S., Egypt and Qatar intensified their efforts to reach a hostage deal and temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas amid growing concerns of a violent escalation in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, Axios reports, the parties were unable to reach an agreement ahead of the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The raging war and dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza add to a backdrop of violent confrontations between Israeli police and Palestinians in recent years (The New York Times).

The Wall Street Journal: With negotiations stalled, a senior Hamas official said in an interview that the group continues to insist Israel permanently halt the war.

3 THINGS TO KNOW TODAY

▪ From weighing resigning over Afghanistan, to helping save Kyiv, Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, now faces his toughest test over Gaza.

▪ Two federal departments on Sunday urged UnitedHealthcare Group to expedite payments to health care providers after a hack of the insurer’s Change Healthcare tech unit crippled medical claims and payments.

▪ Kensington Palace released a Mother’s Day portrait of Catherine, Princess of Wales, to showcase her health, but news agencies later said the image had been manipulated — further stoking rumors about her recovery after she underwent surgery.

📺 Sunday talk shows: Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass) says there is broad bipartisan support for a border deal, telling NewsNation political editor Chris Stirewalt, host of “The Hill Sunday,”that he believes “MAGA” conservatives in Congress are blocking legislation for political reasons. … House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) told CBS’ “Face the Nation” that if Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) bucked conservatives, a Ukraine aid bill would pass the House and Democrats would acknowledge the Speaker’s contribution to national security if conservatives tried to oust him. “I believe there are a reasonable number of members … [who] don’t believe that he should fall as a result of it,” Jeffries said. … Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a Trump ally who denied the former president is calling the shots in the Senate, asserted during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” that Biden “has screwed the world up every way you can.” … Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) told CNN’s “State of the Nation” that the 2024 contrast between Biden and Trump is stark. The “choice is clearly Joe Biden. And the Georgians will get it right for Joe Biden, just as they got it right for me,” he predicted, referring to his victory in 2020.

© The Associated Press / Ricardo Mazalan | In December 2001, Guy Philippe (pictured in 2004), at the time a police official, attacked the National Palace in an attempted coup that led Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to call on the gangsters to rise from the slums.

MORE INTERNATIONAL

UNRELENTING GANG ATTACKS have paralyzed Haiti for more than a week and left it with dwindling supplies of basic goods. Officials extended a state of emergency and nightly curfew last week as gangs continued to attack key state institutions. Caribbean leaders issued a call late Friday for an emergency meeting Monday in Jamaica on what they called Haiti’s “dire” situation. They have invited the U.S., France, Canada, the U.N. and Brazil to the meeting. Police and palace guards worked Saturday to retake some streets in Haiti’s capital after gangs launched massive attacks on at least three police stations (ABC News). Among those trying to take power in the country is Guy Philippe, a former coup leader who spent six years in a U.S. prison (The Wall Street Journal).

Competing for power is the feared gang boss “Barbecue.” Jimmy Chérizier says he is leading Haiti’s poor against corrupt government forces, but experts point to a dark and violent past (The Guardian).

The U.S. military on Sunday airlifted nonessential embassy staff from Haiti in an overnight evacuation and boosted security in the capital, Port-au-Prince, due to escalating gang violence (Axios).

▪ The Associated Press: Why is there chaos across Haiti? Leaders used street gangs to gain power. Then the gangs got stronger.

▪ The Atlantic: Haiti is in crisis.

▪ The Washington Post: Haitians are being shot dead in the street and there’s no one to take the corpses away.

Russia has begun using a powerful aerial bomb that has decimated Ukrainian defenses and tilted the balance on the front lines. It has done so by converting a basic Soviet-era weapon into a gliding bomb that can cause a crater fifteen meters wide. Joseph Trevithick, who has written about the development of the bomb for TheWarZone, told CNN they “offer a new and far more destructive stand-off strike option for many of Russia’s tactical jets that also help pilots stay further away from enemy defenses.”

▪ The New York Times: Ukraine could deploy a small number of F-16 fighter jets as soon as July.

▪ ABC News: Ukrainian and allied officials Sunday criticized Pope Francis for saying that Kyiv should have the “courage” to negotiate an end to the war with Russia, a statement many interpreted as a call for Ukraine to surrender.

Japan’s role in Asia and in the world — positioned between the global heavyweights of the United States and China — is undergoing a massive shift. The Hill’s Laura Kelly reports that Tokyo can’t afford to entirely alienate China, its largest trading partner, and the priority destination for Japanese business investment. Yet Japan has firmly tied its future to the U.S. At the top of the potential flashpoints of conflict: Taiwan. Biden has said he is committed to sending U.S. troops to Taiwan’s defense if China invades. That position has soured relations with Beijing, which views Washington’s support for Taipei as unacceptable, and risks blowback in Japan.

“There is an impact on tensions between China and the United States on our bilateral ties, very much,” said Makoto Nishida, a member of Japan’s parliament for the Komeito party, which is a junior member of the coalition headed by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s Liberal Democratic Party.

WHERE AND WHEN

🕒 Here’s hoping your alarm clock got it right this morning after Daylight Savings Time!

The House will convene at 2 p.m.

The Senate will meet at 3 p.m.

The president will receive the president’s daily brief in Delaware at 7:30 a.m. Biden will travel to Washington to speak to the National League of Cities at 11 a.m. at a D.C. hotel. The president will fly to Manchester, N.H., and urge Congress in remarks at 2:30 p.m. to lower health care costs. He will deliver that speech at the YMCA Allard Center in Goffstown, N.H., before headlining a campaign event at 3:35 p.m. in Manchester. He will return to Washington this afternoon.

Vice President Harris is in Los Angeles. She will fly to San Francisco to speak at a campaign fundraiser at 2:30 p.m. PT, along with her husband, Doug Emhoff. She will speak at a separate fundraiser at 4:05 p.m. PT in San Francisco.

The Office of Management and Budget today will unveil the president’s proposed budget to Congress for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will meet with the Bloomberg Philanthropies Board of Directors at 9:30 a.m.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will travel to Arizona for the National Farmers Union Annual Conference.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm will travel to Florida for a fireside discussion at 5:45 p.m. with NBC’s “Today Show” about increasing clean energy adaptation and overall resiliency as part of the annual Aspen Institute ideas conference. Granholm will join Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava (D) during a meeting with advocacy organizations and community members about climate and energy issues.

Health and Human Services Department Secretary Xavier Beccera will outline his team’s fiscal year 2025 budget priorities during a 2 p.m. press conference.

ZOOM IN

POLITICS

The presidential contest turns to Tuesday’s contests in Georgia, Hawaii, Washington and Mississippi, from which former President Trump may extract delegates necessary

to mathematically lock up the Republican Party’s nomination. Trump and Biden each campaigned in Georgia Saturday.

The president, who will barnstorm in swing states Michigan and Wisconsin this week while Vice President Harris appears in Denver, would like to see a polling bump following his State of the Union address, which Nielsen said attracted more than 32.2 million viewers Thursday. The president’s campaign said his muscular speech helped break fundraising records.

CNBC: Biden vs. Trump: What a presidential election rematch could mean for your taxes.

Meanwhile, there’s a battle underway for control of the House, including nine contests that will determine the majority.

Among governors’ races, the spotlight is on North Carolina, where Republican candidate Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, a Trump ally, faces increasing scrutiny because of past remarks and conspiracy theories. His conservative comments about the 2020 election, LGBTQ issues, civil rights, slavery and women’s issues are back in the news. Some Republicans worry his divisive opinions could cost them a winnable race. 

“Democrats have been given the greatest messenger against Mark Robinson, and that’s Mark Robinson,” said Paul Shumaker, a North Carolina Republican strategist. 

North Carolina’s Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Attorney General Josh Stein, says he’d welcome campaign help from Biden in the swing state. The president lost North Carolina to Trump in 2020 by less than a point.

“Yes, because I think he can win North Carolina. He is our best chance to move this country forward,” he told CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday. Stein won the Democratic nomination for the North Carolina governor’s race on Super Tuesday last week.

2024 ROUNDUP

▪ Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) got the “Saturday Night Live” treatment following her much-talked-about GOP response to the State of the Union address. Scarlett Johansson made a cameo appearance to portray the senator. Britt defended a story she included in her Biden-speech rebuttal that was factually scrambled and did not take place during Biden’s presidency.

▪ NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo broadcasts his interview with ex-Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson tonight at 8 p.m. ET.

▪ Latino Catholics are a voting bloc key to the presidential race. Biden, the second Catholic president in U.S. history, and Trump have separate platforms that clash with the teachings of the Catholic Church. In 2020, Biden notched a wide lead over Trump among Hispanic Catholics, so how will Latino Catholics line up this year?

▪ Democrats say polls are overestimating Trump’s strength.

▪ Trump escalates his anti-migrant rhetoric.

▪ Again! Trump on Saturday may have defamed writer E. Jean Carroll anew.

▪ Public health advocates find Trump’s apparent embrace of the anti-vaccine movement alarming, reports The Hill’s Nathaniel Weixel.

▪ Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faces tough choices in his quest for ballot access.

ELSEWHERE

CONGRESS

Money matters: Republican senators say the race to replace Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) could be decided by fundraising prowess, citing the more than $1.6 billion he helped raised through two outside groups for Senate Republican candidates since 2015. The fundraising “factor” in an election year could advantage Texas Sen. John Cornyn (R) in his leadership race against Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.) for the top job, The Hill’s Alexander Bolton reports.

While Cornyn and Thune have each raised millions of dollars over the years and given generously to colleagues, Cornyn is wired into one of the largest Republican fundraising hubs in the country and has given away significantly more money to GOP candidates than Thune over the past decade. He’s raised more than $14 million for Republican incumbents, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) and Senate Republican nominees to date in the 2024 election cycle.

Thune has raised $8 million for the NRSC this election cycle, more than any senator other than Senate Republican campaign chairman Steve Daines (Mont.).

“It’s important that you have a leader who has the ability to go out and raise money to help members get reelected,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) noted, but emphasized it’s not the sole consideration for GOP senators, noting, for example, that he sees both Cornyn and Thune as capable fundraisers.

ADMINISTRATION

Budget now, budget next? If Congress wasn’t still mired in this year’s appropriations and partisan battles over spending, Biden’s budget blueprint for the next fiscal year, to be sent to Capitol Hill today, would attract bigger headlines. Election-year budgets for presidents of either party, often selectively previewed in State of the Union addresses, are political wish lists stamped by opponents as “dead on arrival.” The Hill’s Bret Samuels reports what to expect today, including Biden’s ambition to raise taxes on corporations and the wealthy, cut deficits over a decade and protect entitlements, including health care programs.

Funding 2024, halfway done: Congress and the White House averted a possible shutdown on Saturday when Biden signed a package of six appropriations measures approved in the nick of time. The next shutdown deadline for the final six appropriations bills is March 22, and the Pentagon is included.

The Hill’s Ellen Mitchell turns her attention away briefly from the current Defense Department funding challenges to preview the Pentagon’s proposed budget for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 — to be sent to Congress today. The president will seek a 1 percent increase under the department cap, Bloomberg News reports, adding the administration’s requests include a dip in funding below projections for procurement and research and development.

▪ Defense One: The Air Force warns of cuts to its planned buys in its upcoming budget, including F-35 fighter jets.

▪ The Hill: For military veterans, here’s why employment is only half the battle.

OPINION

■ Gaza may be the crucible for new order in the Middle East, by Mona Yacoubian, opinion contributor, The Hill.

■ If there’s one thing Trump is right about, it’s Republicans, by Peter Wehner, guest essayist, The New York Times.

THE CLOSER

© The Associated Press / Jordan Strauss, Invision | Robert Downey Jr., Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Emma Stone and Cillian Murphy won Oscars in the acting categories at the 96th Academy Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday.

And finally … 🎥 “Oppenheimer” overwhelmed the competition at the 96th Academy Awards on Sunday, winning seven Oscars, including the one for best picture, while cementing Christopher Nolan’s status as the foremost filmmaker of his generation, The New York Times reports.

Nolan, 53, a previous five-time nominee for directing or writing but never a winner, was named best director. “Oppenheimer” also won Oscars for actor (Cillian Murphy), supporting actor (Robert Downey Jr.), film editing (Jennifer Lame), cinematography (Hoyte van Hoytema) and score (Ludwig Göransson).

“Oppenheimer,” a three-hour drama with nearly $1 billion in ticket sales, gave the film elite hope that traditional cinema has not been entirely lost to franchise superhero movies.

Emma Stone won the Oscar for best actress for “Poor Things,” a twist on the Frankenstein story. “Poor Things” collected a quartet of Oscars overall, also winning for costumes, production design and makeup and hairstyling.

Downey accepted the Oscar for best supporting actor by joking, “I’d like to thank my terrible childhood and the academy, in that order.”

Da’Vine Joy Randolph took home the award for best supporting actress for playing a grieving mother and boarding school cook in “The Holdovers.”

Here’s a complete list of Oscar winners, courtesy of Variety.

▪ The Hill’s ITK: To considerable laughter, Jimmy Kimmel read aloud during the Oscar awards show from Trump’s real-time social media criticism of his fourth turn as host. Kimmel’s kicker: “Isn’t it past your jail time?”

▪ The Hill’s ITK: Kimmeltook aim at the senator who delivered the response for Republicans to Biden’s State of the Union speech: “An adult woman with the brain of a child.”

▪ The Hill’s ITK: At the start of the Oscars evening, Billie Eilish (who now has two Oscars)and Ramy Youssef voiced support for a Gaza cease-fire, and others followed during the evening.

▪ The New York Times: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honored Russian dissident Aleksei Navalny, 47, who died last month in a Russian prison.

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