WASHINGTON— President Biden made a rare appearance Friday at the White House press briefing.
Q: "Do you have confidence that it will be a free and fair election and that it will be peaceful?"
President Biden: "I'm confident it will be free and fair. I don't know whether it will be peaceful. The things that Trump has said…were very dangerous." pic.twitter.com/HrhpaooEHe
— CSPAN (@cspan) October 4, 2024
Biden also had terse words for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday, and said he didn’t know whether the Israeli leader was holding up a peace deal in order to influence the outcome of the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
Q: "Do you want to re-consider dropping out of the race?"
President Biden jokingly, "I'm back in!" pic.twitter.com/WIyhRwbjjk
— CSPAN (@cspan) October 4, 2024
Biden, was responding to comments made by one of his allies, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who said on CNN this week that he was concerned Netanyahu had little interest in a peace deal in part because of U.S. politics.
Israel has pressed forward on two fronts, pursuing a ground incursion into Lebanon against Hezbollah that left eight Israeli soldiers dead and conducting strikes in Gaza that killed dozens, including children. And the nation has vowed to retaliate for Iran’s ballistic missile attack this week, as the region braced for further escalation.
-The Associated Press contributed to this report.
