Press Briefing by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and John Kirby 10/11/23 Transcript

Good afternoon, everyone. I just want to take a moment to address the horrifying reports that continue to come out of Israel. I know many of us in the room and at home are moms and dads, and regardless, we’re all humans.

(00:23)
We have heard stories of parents doing their best to shield their babies from danger. These reports are devastating. We are hearing the reports of entire families, innocents, who were killed in the safety of their homes. We know that so far 22 Americans lost their lives and 17 remain unaccounted for. We know that these numbers are likely to increase in the days ahead.

(00:52)
As the president said this afternoon, this attack has brought to the surface painful memories and the scars left by millennia of antisemitism and genocide of the Jewish people. Later this afternoon, the president will stop by a round table with Jewish community leaders along with the second gentleman, Douglas Emhoff, National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, Homeland Security Advisor, Dr. Liz Sherwood-Randall, Domestic Policy Advisor, Neera Tanden, and Steve Benjamin, senior advisor to the President for public engagement.

(01:31)
This round table discussion will focus on the Biden/Harris administration’s unwavering support for Israel following the Hamas terrorist attacks and the implementation of President Biden’s national strategy to counter antisemitism, which was released in May. Today and every day, we are here to reaffirm the United States’ will to continue to have Israel’s back.

(01:59)
With that, Admiral John Kirby’s here from the National Security Council to take any of your questions on the situation in Israel. Okay, John.

Thank you, Karine.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

(02:15)
Good afternoon, everybody. As Karine noted, sadly the numbers of Americans killed, murdered, has climbed, and we have a little bit better sense today of how many more Americans are unaccounted for or missing. We know that a number of those Americans are being held hostage right now by Hamas. I think we all need to steal ourselves for the very distinct possibility that these numbers will keep increasing and that we may in fact find out that more Americans are part of the hostage pool.

(02:58)
As Karine said, our message to all these families affected, we’re with you, we’re grieving with you, we’re sorrowful with you, we’re worrying with you, and we’re going to do everything we can, particularly for those who don’t know where a loved one is, to find out where they are and to get them home with you where they belong. That includes, of course, being willing to assist in advice or counsel when it comes to hostage recovery efforts. Now, of course, the Israelis have a very robust hostage recovery capability of their own. Sadly, they have been forced to perfect that particular kind of capability, but we also have a lot of know-how too, and we’re offering to share that with the Israeli Defense Forces.

(03:39)
At the same time, we’re sharing additional defense related support. I think you saw that the Israeli Military announced today, with some imagery, the first tranche of US Military assistance arriving in Israel. That will continue.

(03:55)
We also, as I think the president alluded to yesterday, were able to replenish some of their iron dome interceptor missiles. These were missiles that we already had in stock in Israel. We simply just transferred ownership over to the Israeli Defense Forces. Again, more aid, more assistance will be coming in coming days.

(04:16)
As you also know, the aircraft carrier, USS Gerald R. Ford and her strike group are now in the Eastern Mediterranean. They arrived yesterday. They are there for deterrence purposes to make it clear to any would-be actor, organization, group, terrorist network, nation state, anybody who thinks that with hostile intent towards Israel that this is the time to widen and expand the conflict, that we will take our national security interest seriously.

(04:42)
I would also note that the USS Dwight D Eisenhower aircraft carrier and her strike group will be departing on a pre-scheduled long scheduled deployment to the European command area of responsibility. They’ll start that deployment in the coming week or so. They will be going initially across the Atlantic and into the Mediterranean where they will be available if needed. No decisions have been made. I’ve seen some press reporting out there that we’ve already made some kind of final decision that a second carrier is going to be placed in the Eastern Med. No operational decisions like that have been made, but she will be heading in that direction, her ships will be with her, and she certainly will be an available asset if needed.

(05:21)
Bottom line is, as I said, we’re sending a loud and clear message. The United States is ready to take action should any actor hostile to Israel consider trying to escalate or widen this war. I think Jake said that pretty well yesterday.

(05:34)
We’re also going to continue to talk to our Israeli partners about their needs to ensure again that they have what they require to defend their country and their people, and that’s just not going to stop. In fact, it’s almost an hourly conversation that we’re having with our counterparts.

(05:46)
Now, I know many of you have been asking about or expressing some interest in the idea of safe passage in Gaza for civilians. Let me just say right up front, we’re actively discussing this with our Israeli and our Egyptian counterparts. We support safe passage for civilians. Civilians are not to blame for what Hamas has done. They didn’t do anything wrong, and we continue to support safe passage. I don’t have an announcement to make today. I can’t tell you a specific route or a corridor. I just want to make it clear that we are actively working on this with our Egyptian and our Israeli counterparts. Civilians are protected under the laws of armed conflict, and they should be given every opportunity to avoid the fighting.

(06:25)
Now, if I could switch to Ukraine just quickly. Today, the Secretary of Defense announced at the Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting over in Europe that the United States is announcing a new aid package, which includes air defense munitions, ammunition for US provided artillery and HIMARS, counter UAS equipment, unmanned aerial systems, sorry, to help Ukraine protect their people against Russian and Iranian drone strikes. We’re also announcing additional anti-armor capabilities and more than 16 million rounds of small arms in ammunition.

(06:56)
As the Ukrainians continue to wage a very tough counteroffensive and as winter now fast approaches, we believe that it is absolutely imperative, you heard me say before, time is not our friend, that we continue to do everything we can to help Ukraine succeed on the battlefield and claw back some more of their own territory from Russian units on the ground there.

(07:15)
This military aid package that we’re announcing today is another important signal of our continued commitment to supporting the Ukrainian people, and it utilizes funding authorities that Congress authorized for Ukraine during prior fiscal year under the presidential drawdown authority. We’re obviously going to continue to provide Ukraine with the weapons and equipment they need, but it is absolutely critical that Congress keep its commitment to the people of Ukraine by providing additional funding. We are in active conversations with members of Congress about additional funding for Ukraine and for Israel, and it’s critical again that we believe Congress sends a clear message to Putin, sends a clear message to the Israeli people that the United States continues to have their back. With that, we’ll take some questions.

[inaudible 00:08:00].

First, John, ask just a little bit of clarification on the 22 Americans who unfortunately been killed. Were all those Americans killed, believed to being killed by Hamas, were all of them all killed in Israeli territory, or do you know of how many Americans have been killed inside Gaza?

I’m afraid I don’t. We know the number is accurate as of right now, but this individual circumstances are not exactly clear.

As Kevin said, this group 22, it was in Israel, but-

I don’t have the details on every single one. You could certainly consult the State Department. They might have a little bit higher touch because they are in touch, or I know they’re trying to be in touch with all the families, but we don’t have that information.

I can just quickly, all signs suggests that Israel will begin a possible ground invasion relatively soon. I know you talked about safe passage, but has the US done anything to dissuade Israel from moving ahead with ground offensive? And if it does move ahead, has the president or administration officials directly asked Israel to show the strength and how it goes about such a operation?

We’re going to let the Israelis talk about their military operations, particularly in the future tense. We don’t even talk about our operations in the future tense. I don’t want to get ahead of where things are, and I certainly am not going to talk about Israeli Military planning, so I’ll let them take that.

(09:34)
You heard the president talk about this a little bit yesterday, this idea of you’re asking about restraint. Nobody wants to see any more innocent life lost. None. Nobody, no matter who you are. If you’re an innocent civilian, you didn’t cause this, you didn’t ask for this, and you shouldn’t be having to fear for your life. Nobody wants to see that happen.

(09:58)
I think it’s important to remind that, especially on the Palestinian side, Hamas is directly endangering their lives, headquartering themselves in hospitals and schools, residential buildings, using the Palestinian people as human shields. They didn’t ask for that either. Hamas doesn’t speak for the majority of the Palestinian people or their aspirations for peace and security. I think that’s an important place to start this conversation. Unlike the United States, unlike Israel, as the president said yesterday, who have respect for the rule of law and the law of armed conflict and respect for human life, Hamas has none. None at all. Again, we’ll let the Israeli speak for the military operations. Our focus squarely right now in these still early hours, and they are early hours, is to make sure that the Israelis have what they need.

[inaudible 00:10:49].

I just want to clarify the numbers here. I think, Karine, you just said that 17 Americans remain missing. Is that the latest number? I think yesterday you had said 20. I just want to make sure we’re operating off of the same thing.

There is 17 that are missing and 22 that are dead.

Okay. Is there anything you can share with us about anything you know about the condition of the hostages, and also, has there been any kind of communication with Hamas either directly or with our allies or partners about securing their release? Is there any kind of receptiveness that they’ve shown even to talking about this issue?

Let me take the second one first. Obviously, we’re in discussions not only with the Israelis about what hostage recovery could look like, but with other allies and partners in the region. There are some countries, like Qatar, that have open lines of communication with Hamas. Of course, we’re casting the net wide, as you would expect we would. We want to get all hostages back with their families, particularly the American hostages. No question about that.

(11:49)
Now, where they are and in what condition? No. Sadly, we don’t know. That makes efforts very, very difficult, and again, in these early hours, but we don’t know. We don’t know where they are. We don’t know if they’re all in one group or broken up into several groups. We don’t know if they’re being moved and with what frequency and to what locations. All of those questions we’re working hard to answer.

I understand you’re casting wide enough, but has any communication actually been made with Hamas?

I’m just going to leave the answer the way I gave it to you. I think, just like in any other case when we’re talking about getting Americans home overseas that have been held hostage or wrongfully detained, the less you say out there publicly the better.

Got it.

Thank you. Two, on this region and one on another in this hemisphere that I know some outlets in this room have questions about. First, on the humanitarian corridor, is it accurate that the Egyptians have rejected calls to allow for one?

I think you’d have to talk to the Egyptian authorities on that.

Do talks continue, or-

We believe that safe passage is important and we want to see safe passage, a safe passage corridor opened up. We also believe it’s important that humanitarian assistance have a way to continue to get to the Palestinian people. As Jake mentioned yesterday, we’re in active discussions with the Israelis and with the Egyptians about that.

There’s of course this ongoing intelligence assessment and now political debate over Iran, what it knew, what it may have done to support Hamas in all of this. Even if there’s no direct evidence linking Iran to this specific attack right now, does the US believe Iran needs to pay some kind of a price or that there be some kind of retribution for having supported Hamas all along up to this point?

The question almost, and I’m not picking on you Ed, but it implies that we’re just now waking up to the fact that they’ve been supporting Hamas and Hezbollah and other terrorist networks. Hamas is one of the most highly sanctioned terrorist networks on the planet, largely because of what we’ve been doing here in the United States to target them. And Iran, my goodness, just since the beginning of this administration we have sanctioned some 400 plus entities with more than 40

Set different sets of sanction regimes. 30 of those just this past year alone. We’ve increased our military presence in the Gulf region because of their attacks on maritime shipping. We have added additional sanctions because of their support to Russia and the fact that they’re still providing drones and technology to Mr. Putin so he can kill innocent Ukrainians, and now we’ve added our military capability. We’ve added to it from a naval perspective in the Eastern Med. So nobody has turned a blind eye to Iranian destabilizing behavior.

(14:30)
Now, I think what you’re trying to get at is this particular set of attacks, what Jake said yesterday still holds. We obviously recognize that there’s broad complicity here by the Iranians because of the longstanding support to Hamas. Hamas wouldn’t have been able to function at all had it not been for propping up by the Iranian regime. But we haven’t seen any specific evidence that tells us they were witting, involved in the planning or involved in the resourcing and the training that went into this very complex set of attacks over the weekend.

Yes, one other. I mentioned an issue here in this hemisphere that there are outlets in this room I know curious about. There’ve been several days now of protests in Guatemala that have essentially locked down parts of the country and the ongoing protracted difficult presidential transition. Just curious if you can give us a sense of how the US is monitoring that and whether it has any message for protesters who continue to hold up some parts of society that have blocked gasoline and food shipments in parts of the country.

Certainly aren’t going to involve ourselves in internal Guatemalan politics. We obviously believe in free and fair elections. We believe in democratic voices and we certainly believe in the right of peaceful protests. People should have the right to protest whatever they want to do as long as they do it peacefully and in a way that doesn’t put others at harm. I think I’ll leave it at that.

Go ahead, Jeff.

Thank you. John, you mentioned wanting to avoid actors in the region taking advantage of this. Can you give us a sense of who you think might take advantage of this that you’re worried about?

I think there’s a unfortunately long list of actors in the region that are hostile to Israel. Hezbollah is one of them, and we’ve been watching with concern. Some of the rocket attacks that have come across the northern border of Israel from Lebanon, which obviously we’re coming from Hezbollah. So we’re clearly concerned about that.

Concerned about Iran as well?

We’re always concerned about Iran, and Iran’s hostility to Israel doesn’t need any reaffirmation by us. It’s out there playing to see. So yeah, of course we’re concerned about Iran.

You mentioned the humanitarian corridor, but more just staying on the topic of the humanitarian issue, what can be done or what is the US doing to prevent a humanitarian crisis in Gaza with the situation now about power, water, food?

Yeah, as I said, we believe that humanitarian assistance is important for the Palestinian people that live in Gaza, and we are going to continue to pursue options to make sure that they get that humanitarian assistance.

Yeah. Is the US in conversation with the Palestinian authority or the Palestinian community here in the US?

We have been routinely in communication with the Palestinian authority. I don’t have or there’s not meetings or discussions in recent hours that I can speak to, but we have long maintained an open line of communication with them.

How about does the US also condemn perhaps potential war crimes Israelis are convening against Gaza?

Our focus right now is making sure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself against these attacks.

Go ahead.

If I can ask you first just about something that you referred to, which is the reported incursion into Northern Israel. There have been reports from the IDF. Do you have any new information to share on that? There are reports of paragliders initially. Any other additional information about that?

I’ve seen the reports. We’ve taken a quick look at them. We are not in a position to corroborate the validity of them. What I’ve talked about with Jeff was rocket attacks that we know have occurred in recent days.

Then if I can, I just want to ask you separately about these hostages right now. Presumably 22 dead, at least 17 held hostages, not only the number of dead could rise-

17 that we know are missing.

Oh, excuse me, excuse me.

And that number will fluctuate.

And that number could rise.

It could rise, it could go down. As people maybe they’re found safe and sound so-

Understood.

… it’s 17 today.

Understood. So about those who remain hostages right now, has the President ruled out sending any American forces of any kind into Gaza at any time to help secure their release if necessary to get them out safely?

We haven’t made any policy options or operational decisions with respect to hostage recovery at this time. We are in active-

It hasn’t been ruled out.

We haven’t made any decisions about hostage recovery at this time. We just don’t also have enough information, Peter, to be able to make decisions like that. But you heard Jake yesterday say, and the President has said, we’ll do everything we can, anywhere around the world, to make sure that Americans held hostage have a path home and to be safe with their families. So we’re keeping the, to Mary’s question, obviously we’re casting the wide net. We’re also keeping the options wide open right now as we get more information, but we just don’t have enough granularity to be able to fine tune those options.

Has the President spoken to any of those unaccounted for or any of those Americans dead, the families of them?

I know that the State Department has been in touch with most of the families of those that we know have been killed. I don’t know if they’ve talked to all of them. I have no conversations from the White House to speak to.

Thank you. What’s the level of concern that American troops who are stationed in the Middle East might be a target of Iran or some proxy forces, and are there steps being taken to secure military installations?

Well, sadly, I mean our troops in the Middle East are well familiar with the ebb and flow of security concerns for force protection. It’s just part and parcel being deployed there, and it’s never not a concern for commanders in the region when it comes to force protection because some other event somewhere else could absolutely have repercussions for you and your troops. So without speaking to specifics, never do that. What the force protection measures look like, they change all the time. They certainly are adapted to the situation and the Defense Department will and of course be able to speak to what they’re doing.

And are you seeing any evidence of potential domestic threats that people might be inspired by these attacks to do harm here in the US to synagogues or any other places?

I know of no specific threats here domestically, like a spillover effect of what’s happening between Israel and Hamas. I know of no specific threat streams here to speak to, but you heard the President talk about this yesterday. We’re not going to assume anything. Because of the rise of antisemitism around the world and certainly here at home, it makes perfect prudent sense that we take the kind of action we have taken with local and state authorities to increase our domestic intelligence posture and to make sure that we’re properly prepared to deter and disrupt any potential violent threat to the Jewish community here at home. And I think you’ll hear the President talk about this a little bit more today.

Thank you, Admiral.

Jackie, and then we’ll [inaudible 00:21:29].

Thank you Karine. John, this was a massive intelligence failure. Who bears responsibility for that?

You know something, Jackie, there’s going to come a time when it’s appropriate for us to take a look back retrospectively and see what the intel picture showed us or didn’t show us, whether there’s any gaps that need to be closed. There’s going to be a time for that, and I suspect that our Israeli counterparts will do the same thing. Now’s not that time. It’s just not that time.

Can you speak to the reports that Israel was warned by Egypt?

I can’t.

From a call from Foreign Affairs made that allegation this morning saying that that was something that members were told on the Foreign Affairs Committee. So has that been discussed at all or is that something you’re looking into?

I can’t speak to specific intelligence matters. Again, there will be a time to look back at this as we always do, and we will. Right now, we’re sharpening the intelligence gathering and cooperation and sharing with Israel as we should since they’re involved in active operations and we’re making sure that they get the tools they need.

Can you define what the direct link is when you guys talk about Iran not being involved? No direct link. What do you consider to be a direct link?

So what I’m referring to there is any evidence that we have that they were knowledgeable of and aware of these particular attacks. Now, of course, as Jake said yesterday, they were obviously have been broadly aware of Hamas’ hostility to Israel and to some of the broad planning that that Hamas would do, but we haven’t seen anything that tells us they knew specifically date, time, method, that they were witting to this. We haven’t seen anything that tells us they specifically cut checks to support this set of attacks or that they were involved in the training, and obviously this required quite a bit of training by these terrorists, or that they were involved in any directing of the operation. So again, I promise I’m not trying to monopolize the time here, but it’s we’re not one and done here either. We’re going to continue to look at the intelligence stream and see if it leads us to a different conclusion. All I can do is be honest with you about the conclusions we’re coming to today and we just haven’t seen that.

So you kind of answered my follow-up, which is-

Oh, good.

… is it the position of the administration that at this stage, Iran was not involved? I guess my question is how can we know that this was in the planning for over a year and within a few short days say that Iran was not behind it?

Because that’s what we think, because we’ve been looking at it.

It is the position then?

No. What we think, now again, we have not seen any evidence, specific evidence that Iran was directly involved with these specific sets of attacks. Yeah, look, we’re going to keep looking at it. The book’s not closed on it. We’re going to keep looking at that, but that’s just where we are right now.

All right, we’re going to move on. Go ahead, Anita.

I’m sorry to yammer on on the Iran thing, but just briefly, what did Iran-

I said Anita. We’ll try and get to everyone.

Sorry. What did Iran know and when did they know it? Where are we now? Where is the White House now on what they knew, when they knew it, about this attack?

I think I’d give you the same answer I gave Jackie.

Okay. Moving on to China. The Foreign Minister is coming to DC soon. Just wondering if you can preview what’s on the agenda, who he’s meeting with, and then let us know what the prospects are for a Xi, Biden meeting and whether that might be at APEC in November.

I think we’ll have more to say about the specific agenda as we get closer to it. I don’t have any of the details for you now and I don’t have anything to announce or speak to with respect to a meeting between President Biden and President Xi.

Go ahead, Nadia.

Thank you. John, I’m here.

Thank you.

Yesterday I saw heart-wrenching stories of testimonies of Israeli families who lost their loved one, similar to the one that made you tear up on TV. One of them is the story of Hayim Katsman. His sister appealed to the Israeli government who’s a peace activist. She’s asking the Israeli government not to kill civilians in Gaza in his name. Is this a message that you encourage and you carry to your Israeli partners? Considering that today we have 11 UN workers have been killed, four journalists and 1,100 civilians. How can you make sure that these people are not collateral damage?

I’ve kind of addressed this before, but I’m happy to revisit it quickly again. We don’t want to see any more innocent civilian life taken or lost. None. The numbers should be zero of innocent civilians killed or harmed right now. Sadly, that’s not the case and I wouldn’t stand here before you and try to predict that in a war which is still raging and may rage for yet some time, that there won’t be additional civilian casualties. I wish I could promise you that’s not going to be the case, but I can’t. We don’t want to see anymore, but I can’t promise that. All I can do is repeat what the President said, that this is what differentiates modern democracies like Israel and the United States from Hamas. Hamas is deliberately, I mean, the whole purpose of the initial attacks on Saturday were to kill, to murder, to butcher, to slaughter. They weren’t trying to occupy territory. They were trying to kill. And they are the ones placing the Palestinians at greater risk by headquartering themselves in hospitals and schools.

Go ahead, Brian.

Admiral. Thanks a lot. John, is the White House putting forward a funding package to Congress that puts together funding for Israel with funding for the border, funding for Taiwan and funding for Ukraine?

We’re in active conversations with Congress about additional funding that we know we need specifically for Israel and for Ukraine. I’m not prepared to detail those conversations for you right now or tell you what the parameters are going to be because frankly, those parameters haven’t been yet arrived at or even decided upon. But we

We are in active discussions about additional funding. We need it, as I said in my opening statement. Thank you.

Oh. Thank you. Could you give a little bit of an update on what the administration is doing to find out more about the Americans who are being held hostage and whatever you’re able to discuss about what those efforts look like?

Tough to get more detail. We’re obviously talking to the Israelis about what they might know. They’re on the ground and they’ve unfortunately had to deal with this sort of a scenario before, so they’ve been tremendously forthcoming with the information that they have, but understanding that the information that even they have right now isn’t all that specific. We just don’t have a lot of granularity on where these people are or what condition they might be in or whether they’re being moved.

(28:52)
I truly wish I had more that I could provide because there’s a lot of families out there really, really worried. The families quite frankly too, for all their grief and sorrow and the anguish they’re going through, some of them have been helpful in terms of helping us understand where their loved ones were when they were abducted. Some of them may have even seen it. It’s a conversation that we’re having with family members as well.

Go ahead, ARIEL.

Thank you so much. I have a question on the role tech platforms are playing right now. The EU has specifically asked Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg to crack down on misleading information related to the attacks on Israel. Has the administration had this kind of engagement? Is it making the same kind of demands?

I’m not aware of any such discussions with tech companies about that.

Okay.

Thank you so much. The US has been warning since Saturday that hostile parties should not be escalating the conflict at this time. What evidence do you have about whether that message has been heeded?

It’s not the kind of thing that they phone in and say, “Okay. Got it.” We have not seen to date … We have not seen another actor intentionally try to widen the conflict. All we can go is by what we’re seeing and we’re not seeing. It’s important that we send that signal with the arrival of that carrier strike group and with the rhetoric of course coming out from our administration. We’ll keep doing that.

What variables and within what timeframe would the US look to consider when making a decision about deploying additional assets to the region?

I think it’s going to depend on how things are going in the region. Again, we don’t want to see this conflict widen any more than it already has. Israel’s focused rightly on Hamas. Opening up additional fronts for them obviously would be just a horrible scenario. We don’t want to see that happen.

Peter.

Congressman Lawler just said on TV that they’re expecting an announcement within 24 hours about an airlift to the US citizens. Can you tell us anything about that?

I don’t have any details for you on that. I would just tell you, Peter, that we’re in, the State Department is in, active touch with American citizens in Israel. Many of them, as you well know, are dual nationals to try to make sure that, A, we’ve got the connection and, B, that we know if they have any concerns in the case that they want to leave. We’re in active conversations with Americans on the ground there and we want to make sure …

(31:34)
Right now, there are still commercial carriers, not all, some, flying in and out of Ben-Gurion every day. There are still now viable ground routes if you wanted to leave safely out of Israel, that is also an option to you. But neither of those options may necessarily be feasible or affordable to certain Americans. And so, we are exploring actively a range of other options to assist if Americans want to leave. I’m just not at liberty now to go into more detail about that

Dual citizens, can you identify … Do you know how many of the 22 Americans who have died and the 17 that are unaccounted for, how many of them are dual citizens versus just pure … only American citizens?

The State Department might be able to give you that. I don’t have that data handy, but again, as you know, so many American citizens in Israel are in fact dual passport holders.

Do the Israelis own decisions on what to do about them if they are in fact mostly dual citizens?

I’m sorry. Say that again?

Does that mean that we would defer to the Israelis in terms of deciding what actions to take if they’re mostly their citizens?

A dual national with an American passport is an American and we will take seriously our responsibilities to get any wrongfully detained or American hostage home to their families where they belong. They’re Americans.

John, you talked about the Eisenhower leaving on its pre-scheduled deployment to potentially be out there in case, positioned near the Ford. What about reports about the USS George Washington and also the HMS Prince of Wales? Are they also being readied?

I don’t know of any plans for them to be readied. Again, I’d refer you to the defense Department to speak to other units. Again, I want to remind, the Eisenhower is preparing for a long-scheduled deployment to the region and I don’t have any operational decisions to speak to. I just thought it was important to put that into some context because I saw some reporting yesterday that seemed to suggest it was a definite decision that she was going to join the Ford. That could happen; I don’t know. But she will be deploying into the Mediterranean and will be an available asset as well as her escort vessels.

Okay. I have another follow up here. It seems like you’ve really been trying to … excuse me … project the message that you want to contain this. You want to make sure that state and non-state actors get the message that you want to keep this contained. So, how does it help that effort when you have statements like Senator Graham on Capitol Hill saying, “If Hezbollah and the North attacks Israel in strength, we should tell the Ayatollah, ‘We will destroy your oil refineries and your oil infrastructure.'” How worried are you about statements like that?

I’ll let members of Congress speak for their comments and what they think should be done or should not be done. The President is the Commander-in-Chief. The responsibility is on his shoulders and he’s also, of course, a strong supporter of Israel, has been for his entire life in public service. We have to answer for the policy decisions that we make and we’re comfortable doing that.

John, [inaudible 00:34:50].

Thank you.

Yeah. It’s okay.

AMER’s head is right there. Scoot down a little bit. I’m kidding.

On the humanitarian corridor, I know you said there’s conversations ongoing. Could you provide some more detail? What would the US’ involvement in that be? Are we talking encouraging conversations with Israel and Egypt? Would we have direct involvement in creating some kind of a human-aide corridor here for the two-million-plus people to leave? They have no option at this point.

We want to see that they have an option. Israel and Egypt are the two most significant players when it comes to trying to get that corridor open, so I think you can understand, at least I hope you do, that I wouldn’t want to get into too much of the diplomacy here and the conversations that we’re having, but we are having active conversations about trying to allow for that safe passage. Again, these civilians did nothing wrong, and so we want to make sure they have a way out.

Did the president and Prime Minister Netanyahu Have a conversation about this morning? Yesterday?

As I said in my first answer, I’m not going to get into too much of the diplomacy here.

Could you get into specifics on the aide that you said the US would want to provide to the Gaza Strip, with food, water, medications? What kind of aide would the US want to provide?

The normal kind of humanitarian assistance we provide normally. We are the biggest contributor to humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people, particularly there in Gaza, and we want to be able to see that assistance continue. It’s food, water, medical supplies, medicine. It’s the whole panoply of humanitarian assistance we know are important because, again, these people are victims too. They didn’t ask Hamas to do this.

Is there an increase though in the amount of aide that’s going?

I don’t have any new announcements to make in terms of increases. We want to see … We are the greatest contributor of humanitarian assistance. We’re obviously proud of that. We want to be able to see that humanitarian assistance be able to continue.

Go ahead, Ed.

Yeah. I want to ask you about oil and the money that it’s bringing in. Is the amount of oil that’s being brought in by Iran, specifically records amount 85% to China, more oil being sold above the price-cap from Russia, giving The President any pause on changing these energy policies for fossil fuels here in the US?

I would just … Let me back up a little bit. It’s important to remember that Iran gets most of its oil revenue off the black market and evading sanctions, which they do. It’s costly to them. In fact, our evidence is that they really only receive a fraction of the market value of the oil that they sell because they have to sell it on the black market. We will always, as we do in any case, typically revisit sanctions regimes to see if they need to be changed or adjusted.

(37:46)
Specifically with respect to Iranian oil, The President, since the beginning of the administration, has been concerned about making sure we have a viable global market for oil, working hard to keep the prices of gasoline down here in the United States. Part of that is making sure you remove some of the volatility in that global supply and demand. I don’t have any announcements or decisions to make today with respect to any changes to the domestic oil production.

But is it a national security issue when you have countries that are profiting off of oil and the increased price of oil that don’t like Israel, that don’t like America?

We don’t want, for instance, Russia to be able to get a windfall in profits from the oil market so that they can then turn that around and apply that to weapons in Ukraine. We certainly don’t want to see Iran be able to do much of the same, which is why we’re putting as much pressure on them as we are.

So, why don’t you increase our production here?

Again, I don’t have any announcements.

[inaudible 00:38:50], go ahead.

Thanks. Just to follow up on Brian’s question, I know contours of congressional package is still taking shape, but can you provide us anything on a timeline or give us a sense of how quickly the US would exhaust what it can provide to Israel before congressional action is needed?

We have existing authorities and appropriations to support Israel in the near term, and I got asked last time, what does near term or what does a bit mean; I can’t give you a date certain on the calendar because a lot of it’s going to depend on their expenditure rate and what the replenishment ability is, and what the need is, and what our ability to do it is.

(39:25)
But in the near term, we’ve got appropriations and authorities for both Ukraine and for Israel. But you don’t want to be trying to bake in long-term support when you’re at the end of the rope, and in Ukraine on the Ukraine funding, we’re coming near to the end of the rope. Today, we announced $200 million and we’ll keep that aid going as long as we can, but it’s not going to be indefinite. So, are we moving with a sense of alacrity? Absolutely. I couldn’t give you a date certain on the calendar.

Couple of more on this side.

Can I follow up on that for a second? The lack of a speaker in the House of Representatives, I’ll venture to say, has probably not had any impact on this situation at the moment. Are there though coming to be immediate needs for Israel if Republicans get their act together up on the hill?

I don’t need to tell you … it’s Civics 101 … that the speaker of the house is responsible, that position is critical, in terms of bringing legislation to the floor and moving things forward. So, the sooner there’s a Speaker of the House, obviously the more comfortable we’ll all be in terms of being able to support Israel and Ukraine. Right now, you’re right; because of existing appropriations and existing authorities, we’ve been okay, but that’s not going to last forever.

A couple more.

Immediate needs, at all?

Pardon?

Immediate needs, at all, do you see?

I think in the immediate term right now, we can continue to support, with the authorities and the appropriations we have, Israel and Ukraine, but we’re certainly running out of runway.

All right. Just a couple more. Go ahead, Phil.

[inaudible 00:40:59] Ukraine. Two questions: given the situation in the Middle East, will the White House lean on the Senate to move some of these military [inaudible 00:41:07] more quickly and one by one if necessary? And then, second, more generally, given that Hamas has killed 22 Americans and that 17 are still in hostage, I know you said the goal here is not to widen the conflict, but why has the United States only assumed a supplemental role thus far?

On your first question, what’s going on in Israel right now just underscores how important it is that our military has the leadership they need in place. It’s not just the ones that are in the jobs now that are being held up, it’s the jobs they’re supposed to go to. Right now, the incoming Fifth Fleet Commander, the Three-Star Navy Admiral who’s in charge of the naval forces

… forces in the Gulf region is not confirmed for that job. So, the guy who’s in the job is still doing it.

(42:07)
So, these rotations matter. And they do have an impact on the military’s ability to fleet up and improve the leadership capability across the force.

(42:17)
So, it is having an impact. And it would anyway, but I think now that you’ve got these moves in Israel and you have the need to provide additional military resources from the Navy in the Eastern Med all, I think, just highlights how dynamic the security environment is around the world and how much more critical it is that the leadership of the military be able to address that dynamism through the normal promotion process and the normal assignment process.

(42:46)
I would take issue with your comment about a supplemental role. I’m not really quite sure what you mean by that, but-

Previously, you said that we were willing to assess and offer advice and counsel to the Israeli.

That’s right. We are. That’s right. And we’re going to continue to have those conversations with the Israelis. If you’re talking about the hostage recovery efforts, we’ll have those conversations.

(43:06)
But as Jake said yesterday, we’ll do what we need to do for our citizens who are being held hostage. We will do what we need to do. We’ll do what is possible to do. But I think, as you’ve heard in my answer to Mary, we just don’t have a whole lot of fingertip feel. I mean, it’s hard to come up with a policy option when you’re not really sure where they are, how many they are, whether they’re being moved.

(43:27)
So, we’re working this very hard hour by hour, but I’m not going to stand up here and lie to you and say that we have it all figured out.

Thanks.

Go ahead.

Thank you, John. Thank you, Karine. Thank you, John.

(43:38)
And Jews across the world are appreciative for this administration’s support, both in words and in deed. I’d like to convey this message to you.

(43:46)
Two very quick questions. I want to follow up on the reports that Hamas was calling of general mobilization on Friday, October 13th. Are there any specific proactive measures that American Jews should take in your opinion?

You mean here at home?

Here at home.

Well, first of all, you’ve heard the president talk about this. We understand the anxiety, the concern certainly here in the United States is antisemitism, unfortunately rears its head. But also, we know that the Jewish community is almost like a family. It’s big, but it’s small, and everybody knows somebody. And we know that there’s so many Americans in the Jewish community here who are worried about friends and family members that are there. We share that worry with them.

(44:38)
We want them to know that we know that there’s fear and that we’re going to do everything we can to reduce that level of fear, that they should be able to worship and recreate and work in peace and safety on every street in the United States of America. And that’s why we’re working so closely with state and local authorities to be able to identify any potential threats and disrupt those threats before they happen.

(45:04)
But mostly, we want the Jewish community over there and certainly here to know that we’re with them.

I’ve got one more question, John. In the event Israel strikes Iran, what levels of support can they anticipate from this administration?

I won’t get into hypothetical operations that haven’t happened yet or what policy options might accrue from that. I just won’t do it.

Mary, you have the last question.

Thanks. I appreciate it. I know you said that it’s been so hard to any information out about U.S. hostages, but have you gotten any proof of life?

I’m not aware of any specific proof of life on any individual hostage. And I would say that of the 17 that Karine talked about, that we know are missing, right now, and again, this is going to change, but right now we think the number that we believe are held hostage is very small. Very small, less than a handful. But that could change over time. We are going to get more information every single day.

You talked about the need to get… U.S. was supporting, trying to get more humanitarian assistance into Gaza. The UN Human Rights Chief said that any siege that would cut off necessary supplies like food and water could also be a violation of international law. Is that how the U.S. sees it?

I think I’m just going to not get ahead of where we are right now, if you’ll just let me do that.

(46:27)
Okay. Thanks everybody. Thank you.

All right guys, we have a few minutes.

Thanks guys.

Thanks Admiral. I don’t know if you guys have any more questions.

(46:37)
Aamer? Yeah.

So the CBO yesterday said that the budget deficit totaled 1.7 trillion, which is an increase from 300 billion from last year. Why did the deficit increase if the U.S. economy is doing so well, as President Biden has said?

So, a couple of things. As you know, the president has, when it comes to the deficit, he has done a record amount of work in reducing the deficit, as you just laid out.

(47:06)
And one of the things that we have seen is that congressional Democrats continue to do the trickle-down economics, which we know it doesn’t work, what you’ve heard us call MAGA-nomics.

(47:17)
And so, it has increased the deficit. It has increased even more than it was anticipated. And so, this is what we believe is a MAGA-nomics deficit. And the reason why, there’s a couple of things to lay out here. If you think about the Republican tax cuts, they are responsible for about 90% of the increase in the debt as a share of the economy, and that’s over the last two decades. This is for some time now. And that’s including that one-time emergency spending.

(47:50)
And so, if you look at 2023, the increase as you just laid out, the falling tax revenue caused 63% of the increase in the deficit and the non- interest spending was not responsible for the increase in the deficit in 2023, but it’s causing just 6% of the increase. So that’s how we see the numbers from the CBO. That’s how we kind of break it down. That’s how it’s been broken down and how we see why the deficit has increased.

(48:17)
Again, this is decades and decades, if you think about it, of trickle-down economics that just doesn’t work. It doesn’t work, and we see that in the numbers from yesterday.

(48:26)
Go ahead, Akayla.

Thanks, Karine. House Republicans are suggesting that another CR bill could be needed, potentially into next year. Would the president support such a bill in delaying this appropriations process again?

I’m not going to get ahead or get into the hypotheticals of how Congress is doing their business. Obviously, the House Republicans has to figure out who’s going to be the next leader. As the president said, he doesn’t have a vote in that. They have to make that decision as they’re moving forward in figuring that out.

(48:58)
But what we want to see happening is that we want the House and Congress to get back to work, to get to work so that we can deliver for the American people. I’m not going to get into hypotheticals, I’m not going to get into their process here, but certainly, they’re trying to figure it out right now in the chaos that they’ve cost.

If there is another CR bill though, does the president want to see Ukraine and Israel aid in that package?

I mean, we’ve been very clear. We believe, and this is something that Jake said yesterday, we are capable as the United States to be able to give additional funding to Israel, to give additional funding to Ukraine. This is something that we are capable of doing and the importance of doing that is clearly important.

(49:43)
There’s going to be a path forward that the OMB director is going to lay out and see the best way to move forward. I’m not going to get ahead of that. You heard the President yesterday, saying that he is going to, as you just iterated, that he’s going to ask for more funding as it relates to Israel. I’m just not going to get ahead of that process, but this is something, again, that Jake said. We are capable of doing that, capable of providing the assistance that’s needed.

(50:10)
Go ahead.

Just before we came out here, Republicans voted to nominate Congressman Scalise as a speaker. He obviously hasn’t gotten the support of the entire caucus yet. I was wondering if the White House is monitoring that and if you have any comment on a potential Speaker Scalise.

Look, I hope that the House Republicans gets their affairs in order and stops the chaos so that they can select the speakers of their choosing, so that we can move forward and do the people’s business.

(50:40)
We’re not part of the process. We’re not going to comment about the process. As the President has said, he doesn’t have a vote in that process. But we want to see the chaos be done with so that we can deliver for the American people.

(50:52)
As you heard today, the President made a very important announcement on junk fees, something that Americans care about, another way to lower cost for Americans. So, the president’s continuing, even with the chaos that they’re causing on the other side of Pennsylvania Avenue, the president every day is continuing to deliver for the American people, clearly being a leader on the world stage as we’re talking about the horrific attack in Israel, as we’re talking about the need to continue the Ukraine funding. So, the President is doing all of that and we’re waiting. We’re waiting for them to get their business in order.

(51:27)
Go ahead, Kayla.

How soon after house leadership gets settled is the administration prepared to send a new supplemental request?

I don’t have a timeline for you. I think the president said next week. He mentioned next week as it relates to Israel and when the Senate gets back. I just don’t have anything specific or any details to lay out on the exact timeline.

And how closely does it hew to what the administration put forward in August with the addition of new funding for Israel?

Again, we’re going to try and figure out the best path forward. I just don’t have anything specific to lay out at this time. Go ahead.

Thanks, Karine. Do you have a list of attendees for today’s meeting on antisemitism?

So, we’ll have a list for all of you, a readout of that later on. It’s about, I believe, 20 leaders from the Jewish community. I laid out the senior staffers who were going to be participating on our end, and we certainly have a more in-depth readout afterwards.

Thank you.

Go ahead, Ed.

Thanks, Karine. On junk fees, most of the fees they talked about are disclosures and don’t reduce. But the ones that do reduce, isn’t this just a game of whack-a-mole and those fees will pop up somewhere else?

Look, no, not at all. These FTC rule covers many junk fees.

(52:40)
And just to lay out a little bit, and I think you’ve heard this from many of our folks here in the past 24 hours, why this is so important, they cost consumers tens of billions of dollars if you think about junk fees. That’s what they cost consumers. And this FTC rule would ban many of them, as I just laid out, and including event tickets, hotels, car rentals, delivery apps, and apartment rentals.

(53:02)
And so, this is CFP’s crackdown. It’s important. The president has been very clear throughout his… When he talks about his economic plan, when he talks about how he’s going to move forward to deliver for the American people and lowering costs, and this is part of that. Lowering costs, making people’s lives, Americans’ lives a little bit easier.

(53:21)
So we do not see this as an whack-a-mole. We believe that the junk fees will cover many of the fees that we see out there as I just listed out. Right behind you. Go ahead.

Thank you. This is related to the situation in the house, but is it the view of the White House that the intelligence Gang of eight that receives the top level briefings from the executive branch has eight members? Or is the Speaker Pro Tem Mr. McHenry getting the security briefings at the very top level? Or are there effectively only seven members with the speaker being vacant?

I would refer you to this to the Speaker Pro Tem. I don’t have that information for you. I would just refer you to his office.

(54:08)
All right, I’m going to take-

You haven’t called on me in two seasons, Karine.

I’m not calling on you today. Go ahead. Go ahead, sir.

You should be ashamed of that.

Go ahead.

That shows disrespect to a free and independent media.

Go ahead.

Let’s blacklist one of our country’s largest-

I’m going to close-

… and most widely read newspapers, Karine.

We have a hard out in-

That shows contempt for a free and independent press.

Go ahead. I’m calling on somebody who I haven’t called in a long time as well. Go ahead.

Thanks. Why wasn’t the president originally scheduled to attend this roundtable later this afternoon? It wasn’t on the guidance from yesterday that was published.

Well, as you know, the president tends to do drop-bys on the day of. The president’s schedule has been incredibly busy over the last couple of days, as you know, with the situation that’s currently happening in Israel. Making calls, meeting with his NSC team.

(54:54)
And he believed because the leaders were coming in, that he wanted to drop-by and have a conversation and say that we are there with them.

(55:03)
This happens all the time. It’s not unusual for us to announce a drop-by. And so, this is what you’re seeing today. And we believe this is going to be incredibly important for the president to be there with the Jewish leaders in the communities. And so, it’s important. It’s going to be an important moment.

Is there anything you can tell us about this incident that happened with Congressman Van Orden and White House staff? Apparently, he was belligerent during the briefing on the attacks in Israel, was shouting profanity at them. Is there anything you can tell us about that incident?

No, I don’t have anything to share beyond what you’re reporting or the reportings from out of that.

(55:36)
All right.

Final question, Karine? In-

No, we’re going to go, because we have to get ready for the Jewish leaders.

Just a final question about Jewish-

Thanks everybody.

Thank you, Karine.

(55:43)
Thank you.

(55:43)
Thank you.

(55:43)
Thank you.