Following Biden’s State of the Union address, Sen. wants to clarify his stance on Hamas. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., calls out President Biden and his administration.
In a conversation with NBC’s Kristen Welker on Sunday’s “Meet the Press,” Graham pointed to a line from the speech when Biden said of Hamas, “If you release the hostages, the war ends.”
“I literally about fell out of my seat,” Graham said. “Is the president saying that if the hostages are released by Hamas, they can stay in power? That ends the conflict?” Graham noted that former President Trump, who will likely be Biden’s opponent in November’s election, “believes it’s non-negotiable when it comes to Hamas: they have to be destroyed militarily, they can’t be in charge.”
“I challenge the Biden administration today to clear this up,” Graham said. “You cannot allow Hamas to remain in power. You cannot allow the Six Brigades to do October 7 again.”
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Welker said that Biden has previously stated that he also supports this position.
Graham also criticized Biden for “missing the boat” by focusing on what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should do, not Hamas or their backer Iran.
“Israel is not killing American soldiers,” Graham said. “Iran is through their proxies. So I’m asking President Biden to hold the Great Satan of Iran accountable for killing soldiers in Jordan and attacking shipping. So yes, I think he’s got that back.”
Graham said the United States should “cooperate with Israel in every way possible,” without saying or doing anything that “empowers our enemy.”
President Biden said on Saturday that the US has no “red line” with Israel over actions that would leave the Middle Eastern country vulnerable to war with Hamas.
“I will never leave Israel,” the president said in a wide-ranging interview with MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart. “Israel’s defense is still critical. There’s no red line [where] I’m going to cut off all weapons, so they don’t have Iron Dome to protect them.”
Biden was clarifying the hot mic comment after delivering his State of the Union address from Thursday night, in which he said he planned a “come-to-Jesus” discussion with Netanyahu on handling the war.