Biden Requested Reporter if She Can 'Maintain from Getting Hit within the Head' After Gaza Query

In mid-November 2024, social media posts and media outlets highlighted an alleged comment by U.S. President Joe Biden in response to a reporter’s query about securing a take care of Hamas to launch Israel’s hostages in Gaza.

The reporter requested, “President Biden, do you assume we will get a hostage deal by the tip of your time period?” And the president supposedly responded, “Do you assume you possibly can hold from getting hit within the head by a digicam behind you?”

The trade supposedly occurred on Nov. 12, 2024, as Biden fielded reporters’ questions earlier than a gathering with Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

Biden did certainly use the above phrases, as evidenced by the White Home’s official transcript, video footage of the second and affirmation from the in-question journalist, Israeli information reporter Neria Kraus. We thus decided the quote to be appropriately attributed.

It was unclear what Biden meant by the response, which, in response to the transcript and video footage, capped the journalists’ question-asking portion of the occasion. The White Home transcript (archived) reads (emphasis ours):

Reporter: President Biden, do you assume we will get a hostage deal by the tip of your time period?

Biden: Do you assume you possibly can hold from getting hit within the head by a — a digicam behind you? All proper. Effectively, thanks all. Effectively, Mr. President [speaking to Herzog], welcome again to the Oval Workplace and the White Home.  You have been a good friend for a very long time, a private good friend.  And you realize my dedication to Israel is ironclad and we share a deep friendship.

The reporter on the middle of the trade — Kraus, who works for Israeli information Channel 13 — posted the video of the second. Kraus wrote on X: “I requested President Biden if he thinks that he can get a hostage deal completed by the tip of his time period. He answered, commenting on the variety of cameramen within the room: ‘do you assume you can get hit within the head by the digicam behind you?'”

Kraus later wrote on X, “The factor that really issues me about Biden’s response to my query is that the political actuality is such that President Biden, who’s dedicated to deliver the hostages house, was not capable of give me a transparent reply about this very crucial query concerning getting a hostage deal by the tip of his time period.”

Throughout Biden’s assembly with Herzog, the Israeli president said 101 Israelis have been nonetheless being held as hostages in Gaza and mentioned what he referred to as “unhappy information of the day” — the latest rocket assaults from Lebanon, which killed two folks. Biden reiterated the U.S.’s dedication to supporting Israel.