‘Mr. President Do You Trust Hamas?’ Reporters Pepper Biden With Questions After Speech on Hostage Release

President Joe Biden took questions from reporters after he spoke about hostages who were about to be released in a deal between Israel and Hamas, including one who asked “Mr. President, do you trust Hamas to uphold their end of the deal?”

After a lot of anticipation, news broke Tuesday night that a deal between Israel and Hamas — negotiated by international partners including Qatar, Egypt, and the United States — to release 50 hostages taken by Hamas in exchange for a four-day humanitarian “pause” in the fighting and the release of 150 Palestinian prisoners.

On Friday, President Biden took to the lectern at the White Elephant Nantucket in Nantucket, Massachusetts to speak about the first group of hostages to be released under the deal, after which he about a dozen questions:

Q Mr. President, when will the first American hostages be released, since none were included today?

THE PRESIDENT: We don’t know when that will occur, but we’re going to be — expect it to occur. And we don’t know what the list of all the hostages are and when they’ll be released, but we know the numbers that are going to be released. So, it is my hope and expectation it will be soon.

Q And of the 10 Americans that are unaccounted for, do you know all of their conditions? Are they all alive?

THE PRESIDENT: We don’t know all their conditions.

Q Mr. President, how long do you expect this war is going to take? And have you encouraged Prime Minister Netanyahu to set a timeline — say, by the end of this year?

THE PRESIDENT: I’ve encouraged the Prime Minister to — to focus on trying to reduce the number of casualties while he is attempting to eliminate Hamas, which is a legitimate objective he has. That’s a difficult task, and I don’t know how long it will take.

My expectation and hope is that, as we move forward, the rest of the Arab world and the region is also putting pressure on all sides to slow this down, to bring this to an end as quickly as we can.

Q Mr. President, do you trust Hamas to uphold their end of the deal?

Q Mr. President, what are the chances of this truce could be extended by a few days or more?

THE PRESIDENT: I think the chances are real.

Q Mr. President, there are members of your party who would like to see conditions placed on aid to Israel. What is your view on that? They would like to see, you know, a reduction in the bombing and that sort of thing.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think that’s a — a worthwhile thought, but I don’t think if I started off with that we’d ever gotten to where we are today.

Q Mr. President —

THE PRESIDENT: We have to take this a piece at a time.

Q Mr. President, do you trust Hamas to uphold their end of the deal?

THE PRESIDENT: I don’t trust Hamas to do anything right. I only trust Hamas to respond to pressure.

Q Mr. President, you said you were hoping to get cooperation from Arab leaders. What are you hearing from them when you talk to them? What would you like to see them do?

THE PRESIDENT: I’m hearing a lot, but I’m not going to speak to it right now. There’s an overwhelming desire on the part of the region to — let me back up. I’m — I cannot prove what I’m about to say, but I believe one of the reasons why Hamas struck when they did was they knew that I was working very closely with the Saudis and others in the region to bring peace to the region by having recognition of Israel and Israel’s right to exist.

You may recall when we did the G20 about — a little while ago, I was able to get a resolution — I — a statement passed through there saying we were going to build a railroad from Riyadh all the way through the Middle East into — into Saudi Arabia, Israel, et cetera, and all the way up to Europe. Not the — not the railroad, but it would be an — an underground pipeline and then railroad.

The whole idea is: There’s overwhelming interest — and I think most Arab nations know it — in coordinating with one another to change the dynamic in their region for a longer-term peace. And that is what I’m going to continue to work on.

Thank you all very, very much. I appreciate it.

Q Thank you, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.

Q Happy Thanksgiving.

THE PRESIDENT: Happy Thanksgiving to you all. I hope you enjoyed it.

Watch above via C-SPAN.