Biden Gives Shocking Answer on Potential Israeli Election Interference

President Joe Biden gave a startling answer when confronted with concerns that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu might be trying to influence the outcome of the U.S. presidential election.

Earlier this week, Senator Chris Murphy said there was a possibility that Netanyahu would not be willing to sign a cease-fire deal before our presidential election, potentially to try to “influence” the results.

During a White House press briefing Friday, Biden was directly asked about those concerns.

“Do you agree, do you have any worries that Netanyahu may be trying to influence the election, and that is why he has not agreed to a diplomatic solution?” asked CBS’s senior White House correspondent Weija Jiang.

“No administration has helped Israel more than I have. None, none, none. And I think Bibi should remember that,” Biden replied.

“And uh, whether he’s trying to influence the election, I don’t know,” Biden said. “But I’m not counting on that.”

The vague nonanswer follows previous reporting that Biden is well aware of Netanyahu’s possible angle to help Trump.

Biden has reportedly told confidants that he believed that Netanyahu never wanted a cease-fire deal and was hoping to prolong Israel’s deadly military campaign in Gaza, not only to save his own political career but to give Trump a hand in November’s election.

Biden’s inability to secure a cease-fire between Israeli and Palestinian leaders has become a political liability for Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, particularly in the battleground state of Michigan, which is home to the largest populations of Palestinian and Lebanese Americans in the country.

Despite concerns that the prolonged war could be giving Trump a boost, Biden and his administration have been unwilling to use any kind of leverage—including the billions of dollars in U.S. weapons sales or the billions in foreign aid—to compel Netanyahu to curtail Israel’s military actions in Gaza, which have killed more than 41,000 Palestinians. Israel has expanded its military actions to Lebanon, where it has killed hundreds of people in the last week alone.

Ohio Senator JD Vance skirted addressing Melania Trump’s startling abortion views on Friday. The Republican vice presidential nominee told a crowd in Lindale, Georgia, that he had no intentions of sparring with the former first lady over their staggeringly different perspective on the hot-button issue.

“I love Melania, I think she’s a great wife to the president, I think a great example of grace under an incredible amount of pressure, but Melania is entitled to her own views in the same way the people of Georgia are entitled to their own views,” Vance said. “And I don’t believe I have to attack or disagree or criticize anybody on this issue because our campaign is focused, again, on inflation, on securing the border, on making life more affordable, on bringing more jobs to the state of Georgia and the whole country.

“Look, I think she’s a smart person. I think she’s gonna express her views, and she’s entitled to do it. But it doesn’t change how I talk about this issue or how this campaign talks about the issue,” Vance added.

Ahead of the release of her upcoming memoir, Melania, the former first lady posted a video to her X account defending the “individual freedoms” of women to do what they wish with their bodies while championing abortion access. In an interview with Fox News on Thursday, Donald Trump confessed that he had encouraged her to “write what you believe” with regard to the new book.

The sudden, casual flip has left the rest of the conservative machine, including Vance, in a bind. Abortion has become a losing issue for Republicans nationwide. The Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn abortion access proved disastrous for Republicans that November, resulting in major losses in districts where abortion was a key talking point. Postelection, at least some members of the conservative party had a stunning reversal, with GOP consultants referring to the turning tide on the issue as a “major wake-up call.”

But much of the Republican Party, especially the MAGA movement, has refused to give it up. Vance, for one, has previously likened abortion to murder and has supported efforts to strip abortion access away from women. In 2023, the Ohio politico called for a “minimum national standard” on abortion restrictions, and his run for U.S. Senate in 2022 included language on his website that described him as “100 percent pro-life.”

JD Vance couldn’t conjure a response Friday when asked about Donald Trump’s repeated claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged.

Trump has long claimed that he “won” the 2020 presidential election, and that the process was “rigged,” making similar statements in nearly every campaign stop four years later.

Vance, who finally said Thursday that he too believes Trump won that election, was speaking in Lindale, Georgia, the next day, when he was asked to respond to the former president’s statements. 

“Senator, would you use that specific term, ‘rigged’?” asked one reporter. “You have said in the past you have concerns about election integrity … and going forward, and do you concur with the president that the 2020 election was rigged?”

Vance responded with his typical hostility.

“So, I’m from Ohio, I’m not from the South. But I think, I think in the South there is a phrase that really works: Bless your heart,” Vance replied.

“First of all, we’re focused on the future,” Vance said, skating past the question. “If you look at what President Trump says, what I say, we are focused on the future.”

In Vance’s nonanswer, how he intends to get to the future that he and Trump have planned is painfully clear: by once again undermining the results of the presidential election.

During Tuesday’s vice presidential debate, Vance gave a similarly “damning nonanswer” when asked whether he believed Trump had won in 2020, claiming that he was “focused on the future.”

“Look, what President Trump has said is that there were problems in 2020, and my own belief is that we should fight about those issues, debate those issues peacefully, in the public square, and that’s all I’ve said, and that’s all that Donald Trump has said,” said Vance. Two days later, he finally said loud and clear that he believes Trump won that election.

Earlier this week, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer brushed off concerns about the Republican reaction to the last election, claiming that only the liberal media was still focused on the election conspiracy. One of Trump’s top advisers, Corey Lewandowski, also flailed in response to the question of who won in 2020, claiming that Americans no longer “care” about that election. It seems not only that Trump still cares, but that he’s obsessed with 2020.

Trump’s comments about the 2020 election have taken on a new light this week, as the election approaches a month away. Earlier this week, an unsealed filing from special counsel Jack Smith alleged that Trump planned to declare victory no matter the results of the 2020 election and plotted to challenge the results, even when he was repeatedly told he had no evidence of any election fraud.

A new report from the Financial Times says that Harris and her campaign have been reaching out to corporate executives and business leaders for their support against Donald Trump, and that the vice president may be succeeding.

Harris has met with several executives during her campaign, including Karen Lynch of CVS, Ryan McInerney of Visa, Charles Phillips of Infor, and Greg Brown of Motorola, according to the Times.

A number of executives announced on Friday the formation of Business Leaders for Harris to raise money for the vice president. These include LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, billionaire tech and health care entrepreneur Mark Cuban, Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, and Ken Chenault, the former CEO of American Express who now heads a private equity firm. Chenault was even given a prominent speaking spot at the Democratic National Convention in August.

Two finance executives who spoke to the Times said that Harris told them that they expect her to make appointments to the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Trade Commission who weren’t as tough as the agencies’ current respective heads, Gary Gensler and Lina Khan—both of whom have been remarkably succesful at reorienting their departments to go after corporate consolidation and crack down on malfeasance. Maryland Governor Wes Moore, another Harris ally, has also suggested that Harris would be friendlier to big business.

On top of that, Harris’s brother-in-law and close adviser, Tony West, is the CEO of Uber, a company whose reliance on independent contractors and opposition to worker organization has drawn the ire of labor unions. In fact, the Teamsters’ surprising decision not to endorse Harris may have been influenced by West’s proximity to her.

Harris and Gensler’s stances on antitrust policy and workers’ rights have drawn praise from the left. Khan has become something of a progressive favorite for her pro-worker policies as head of the FTC, and Harris courting executives who dislike her will not go over with pro-labor voters. While not as popular, Gensler has taken on the crypto industry and ticked off business executives with new financial disclosure rules. It remains to be seen whether Harris will back them and continue with President Biden’s policies.

Executives at Trump Media & Technology Group have been forced out in the wake of internal allegations that the company’s CEO, former California Representative Devin Nunes, is mismanaging the company.

Several sources that spoke anonymously with ProPublica believed that the forced exits, which include Chief Operating Officer Andrew Northwall and Chief Product Officer Sandro De Moraes, were retaliation for a “whistleblower” complaint regarding Nunes that was sent to the company’s board of directors.

Nunes, a Trump loyalist, has helmed the company since it launched in 2021. Trump Media has generated practically no revenue, and its singular major property, Truth Social, has failed to attract the interest of the general market or become even close to a competitor of platforms like X (formerly Twitter) or Threads.

As its chief executive, Nunes had penned a TV streaming deal to bring cable content onto the site and, for no clear reason explained by the company, traveled to the Balkans to meet with the prime minister of North Macedonia.

Four Trump Media employees were sent packing after the company enlisted a lawyer to investigate and interview the alleged misconduct, reported ProPublica. Alongside Northwall and De Moraes, the company also reportedly let go a human relations director and a product designer. An unidentified source said that the cohort were granted severance pay in exchange for their silence about the situation.

On Thursday, Northwall publicly announced his departure on Truth Social, writing that he had “decided to resign from [his] role at Trump Media” and that he was “incredibly grateful” for the opportunity.

A spokesperson for Trump Media completely brushed off the allegations of retaliation in a statement to ProPublica claiming that the story “utterly fabricates implications of improper and even illegal conduct that have no basis in reality.”

“This story is the fifth consecutive piece in an increasingly absurd campaign by ProPublica, likely at the behest of political interest groups, to damage TMTG based on false and defamatory allegations and vague innuendo,” the statement said, adding that “TMTG strictly adheres to all laws and applicable regulations.”

The report is just another sign that one of Trump’s financial assets may not last for much longer. One of the largest shareholders of the shaky company offloaded its stock as soon as insider-trading restrictions were lifted last month, dumping 11 million shares worth somewhere between $128 million and $170 million. Trump Media fell dramatically in the days following lock-up expiration, with shares spiraling to a fraction of their value at the company’s initial public offering in March.

Donald Trump—who owns roughly 57 percent of the company, with 115 million shares—has insisted he has no intention of selling off his stock, though doing so could be a quick and easy profit for the legally hamstrung Republican presidential nominee. Choosing to do so, however, would devastate investors’ confidence in the Trump-led company and could spell the end for Truth Social.

Trump Media has been criticized as another iteration of a long line of grifts this year as the former president has fought off numerous legal charges that have added up to half a billion dollars in expenses and debt. Other Trumpian hustles included launching a remarkably ugly sneaker, an equally hideous line of watches, and NFT trading cards of himself dressed in superhero costumes and astronaut suits. He also made some quick cash on a limited edition, $60 God Bless the USA Bible co-promoted by “God Bless the USA” singer Lee Greenwood, and stamped his name on a new cryptocurrency platform headed by his two sons, Eric and Don Jr., that even Trump’s allies have criticized as a “huge mistake.”