President Joe Biden had barely finished speaking about the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas when a reporter asked him whether he or Donald Trump, who will succeed him next week, deserved credit for the ceasefire.
Biden immediately turned around with a grin and asked: "Is that a joke?" — then walked away.
The president, who leaves office in five days, may have been grinning, but it's a question everyone in Washington had to ask. Democrats and Republicans immediately jockeyed to pitch whether Biden or Trump deserve the lion's share of the credit.
Many Biden administration officials who resigned from the government to protest Biden's support for Israel credited Trump for the end of hostilities. Not surprisingly, the former and incoming president took a victory lap, and Republicans in the Senate cheered him on.
"People respect strength," Senator Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told The Independent. He and Senator Kevin Cramer of North Dakota specifically cited how Trump warned Hamas that there would be "hell to pay" if the hostages weren't released.
Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma flatly told The Independent that Trump deserved "all of it," in terms of credit. He was less than kind about how much Biden deserved.
"You tell me how much negotiating he did," Mullin said, referring to the president. "He didn't."
But Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, another member of the Foreign Relations Committee, said that Biden deserved accolades.
"Obviously, President Biden has put in an enormous amount of work to get to this day," he told The Independent. "To the extent that there was some coordination between both administrations, that's obviously rare, a rarity. But President Biden's putting the security of the country and our allies first."
Murphy joined a coterie of Democratic senators who in December joined Independent Sen Bernie Sanders in an amendment to withhold military aid to Israel. Another one of those senators, Democrat Tim Kaine of Virginia, had repeatedly criticized the Israeli government's approach to its war against Hamas.
"I want to look at details," he told The Independent. But "boy, getting hostages home is so gratifying. And I do think it opens up other opportunities for looking for more long-term resolution."
Senator Peter Welch came out early in support of a ceasefire, even before his fellow Vermonter Sanders, and warned The Independent that the war in Gaza could hurt Democrats in the election.
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