ABC’s Martha Raddatz Tells View Trump Team ‘Clearly Had an Effect’ on Hamas Hostages Deal

ABC News chief global affairs correspondent Martha Raddatz told The View on Thursday that President-elect Donald Trump “clearly had an effect” on brokering a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.

President Joe Biden announced the deal that will see the release of long-held hostages on Wednesday and though he offered thanks to Trump’s team for their help and coordination, he made it clear where he believes the credit lies. Biden responded, “Is that a joke?” when a reporter asked whether he or Trump deserves credit for the deal.

View co-host — and former Trump White House staffer — Alyssa Farah Griffin posed the same question to Raddatz on Thursday, and the reporter informed her that Biden’s administration deserves plenty of credit, but Trump also had an undeniable influence on the deal actually being made before he’s inaugurated.

Check out the exchange below:

ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN: “Martha, the Biden negotiating team has been working on this deal for over a year and it’s remained elusive. Now, since Trump’s victory, his negotiating team has been working hand in glove with Joe Biden’s, which is pretty remarkable considering the political climate. Biden shrugged off a question yesterday about Trump being responsible for this deal as a joke. But Trump has certainly taken a stronger posture against Hamas. How much credit do you think the incoming president deserves for this deal?”

MARTHA RADDATZ: “Well, there are certainly hostage families on the street in Tel Aviv who say it is Donald Trump who helped get this over the line, and they have been working hand in glove. You have to give the the Biden administration props for everything they’ve done so far. There’s been an enormous amount of shuttle diplomacy. But you heard President-elect Trump say there would be hell to pay if the hostages were not released, if there was not a ceasefire agreement before he took office. And that seems to have resonated over there. Whether it really put Hamas over the line, we don’t know about that, but it did have some effect. And having those two administrations work together really did seem to make a difference. You heard President Biden say, is that a joke you think? You think Donald Trump is completely responsible for this. But but they clearly had an effect of some sort.”

Watch above via ABC.