UPDATED 3:45 p.m.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Joe Biden will try to sell Americans on the need to spend billions more dollars on Israel and Ukraine on Thursday, even as the U.S. House of Representatives, without a leader, cannot approve new spending on the two wars.
“Hamas’s terrorist attacks against Israel,” Biden wrote in a social media post listing topics for his White House speech. “The need for humanitarian assistance in Gaza. Russia’s ongoing brutal war against Ukraine.”
He added: “We are at a global inflection point that is bigger than party or politics.”
His televised remarks, at 8 p.m. ET on Thursday (0000 GMT on Friday), follow a Middle East trip upended by a hospital blast in the Gaza Strip. It is only the second prime-time Oval Office address in the Democratic president’s nearly three years in office; in June he cheered the end of a debt ceiling standoff.
The White House said Biden will unveil a new funding request this week believed to be as much as $100 billion. It may include $60 billion for Ukraine and $10 billion for Israel, sources say, as well as billions for Asia and U.S. border security.
In Tel Aviv on Wednesday, the president pledged $100 million in new funding for humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, and said he would ask Congress for unprecedented aid to boost Israel’s fight with Hamas.
“This will also be very much a message to the American people: how those conflicts connect to our lives back here, how support from the American people and the Congress, frankly, is essential,” U.S. deputy national security adviser Jon Finer told MSNBC early on Thursday when asked about the speech.
Any funding measure must pass both the Democratic-led U.S. Senate, where additional aid has bipartisan support, and the Republican-led House, which has not had a speaker for 17 days.
Conservative Jim Jordan, an ally of former President Donald Trump, vowed to continue his floundering bid to be House speaker after failing to win majority support among Republicans.
House Republican lawmakers in recent weeks nearly brought government to a halt over chronic budget deficits and $31.4 trillion in debt, threatening to slash government spending across the board.
About four in 10 respondents in a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted last week said the U.S. should support Israel’s position in the current conflict when given a range of options. Nearly half said Americans should remain neutral or not be involved.
In a separate Reuters/Ipsos poll earlier this month, roughly the same proportion agreed with a statement that Washington “should provide weapons to Ukraine.”
“By bringing these two issues together, it will enable Biden to have a conversation with the nation not just about wars that are taking place in isolation, but conflict globally that has significant repercussions for American security interests as a whole,” said Carmiel Arbit, a senior fellow at Atlantic Council, a think tank.
The U.S. president’s argument may get a wider-than-normal audience. Fox News, the most-watched cable-news channel, will air the speech in a slot normally reserved for a conservative commentator, after opting out of airing his first Oval Office address.
Biden’s brief Israel trip aimed to offer U.S. support following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israeli villages and military bases. Biden’s planned summit in Jordan joined by the Egyptian and Palestinian leaders was canceled after the Gaza hospital explosion.
Meanwhile, the USS Mount Whitney, a sophisticated command, control, communication and intelligence ship, was heading to the eastern Mediterranean to join a host of U.S. warships already there, the U.S. Navy said.
The U.S. Defense Department told members of Congress at a briefing on Wednesday that it intends to send its two Iron Dome missile defense systems back to Israel as part of a leaseback deal, having experimented with the systems for several years.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Additional reporting by Susan Heavey, Doina Chiacu, Idrees Ali, Mike Stone, Jason Lange, Patricia Zengerle and Helen Coster; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Jonathan Oatis, Heather Timmons and Howard Goller)
THE SPEECH CAN BE HEARD LIVE THURSDAY NIGHT STARTING AT 7:00 ON 1470 & 100.3 WMBD, WMBDRADIO.COM, AND BY TELLING YOUR SMART SPEAKER TO “PLAY WMBD RADIO.”
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden will discuss the U.S. response to the Israeli-Gaza conflict and the war in Ukraine in a primetime address, less than 24 hours after returning from Tel Aviv to offer Israelis support and aid for Palestinians in a trip upended by a hospital blast in Gaza.
His televised remarks, scheduled for 8 p.m. ET on Thursday (midnight GMT on Friday), come as Congress remains stalled without a leader in the U.S. House of Representatives needed to pass legislation, including Biden’s expected funding requests for the two wars.
Biden will offer a message of solidarity to the people of Ukraine and Israel, but moreover address the nation, including U.S. lawmakers, about the conflicts’ impact, U.S. deputy national security adviser Jon Finer said in television interviews.
“This will also be very much a message to the American people: how those conflicts connect to our lives back here, how support from the American people and the Congress, frankly, is essential,” Finer told MSNBC.
Meanwhile, the USS Mount Whitney, a sophisticated command, control, communication, and intelligence ship, is heading to the eastern Mediterranean to join a host of U.S. warships already there, the U.S. Navy said.
A U.S. official and a congressional aide told Reuters that the Department of Defense told members of Congress at a briefing on Wednesday that it intends to send its two Iron Dome missile defense systems back to Israel as part of a leaseback deal, having experimented with the systems for several years. The transfer could come within days, the aide said.
Biden returned overnight from his brief Israel trip aimed at offering U.S. support following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israeli villages and military bases. Biden’s planned meetings in Jordan with the Egyptian and Palestinian leaders were canceled after a deadly explosion at a hospital in Gaza.
In Tel Aviv, the president pledged $100 million in new funding for humanitarian aid in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, and said he would ask Congress for unprecedented aid to boost Israel’s fight with Hamas.
The White House has said Biden would unveil his additional funding request this week. The administration is considering $60 billion for Ukraine and $10 billion for Israel, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Any funding measure must pass both the Senate, where additional aid has bipartisan support, and the House, which has not had a leader for 17 days as Republican lawmakers who control the chamber remain split over whether to back conservative Jim Jordan, an ally of former President Donald Trump.
Republicans in the House, which is expected to hold another speaker vote later on Thursday, are also divided over whether to back more aid, with some far-right conservatives particularly opposed to money for Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Finer said humanitarian aid was expected to enter Gaza within the next day or so and echoed Biden’s warning that it is not to be misappropriated for use by Hamas.
(This story has been refiled to remove an extraneous word from the headline)
(Reporting by Susan Heavey and Doina Chiacu; additional reporting by Idrees Ali and Mike Stone; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
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