White House Reporter Confronts Kirby on Biden’s ‘Red Line’ in Gaza: ‘How Many More Charred Corpses Does He Have to See?’
CBS News Senior White House Correspondent Ed O’Keefe grilled White House spokesperson John Kirby about Israel’s ongoing offensive in the Gaza city of Rafah.
More than one million Palestinians are currently in the city, with most of them being refugees who have fled Israel’s invasion after the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks. President Joe Biden has continued sending weapons to Israel despite growing opposition among progressives. He has warned Israel against invading Rafah, which Israel has done, but the White House says Biden opposes a “major” offensive in the city.
However, Israeli tanks advanced to the center of Rafah this week and the air force continued bombing the city. Over the weekend, Israel struck a tent camp, igniting a fire that killed 45 people.
During Tuesday’s White House press briefing, O’Keefe grilled Kirby about the current situation and Biden’s previous admonitions to Israel about Rafah:
O’KEEFE: How does this not violate the red line that the president laid out?
KIRBY: As I said, we don’t wanna see a major ground operation. We haven’t seen that at this point.
O’KEEFE: How many more charred corpses does he have to see before the president considers a change of policy?
KIRBY: We don’t wanna see a single more innocent life taken. And I kind of take a little offense at the question. No civilian casualties is the right number of civilian casualties And this is not something that we’ve turned a blind eye to, nor has it been something we’ve ignored or neglected to raise with our Israeli counterparts – including, Ed, this weekend as a result of this particular strike. Now, they’re investigating it. So, let’s let them investigate it and see what they come up with.
O’KEEFE: But the president doesn’t have like, a personal limit to this?
KIRBY: The president has been very clear and very direct about what our expectations are for Israeli operations in Rafah, specifically, but in Gaza writ large. We don’t support, we won’t support a major ground operation in Rafah. And we’ve, again, been very consistent on that. And the president said that, should that occur, then it might make him have to make different decisions in terms of support. We haven’t seen that happen at this point.
O’KEEFE: Why not have him come out and say that himself?
KIRBY: The president has been speaking to leaders throughout the region on a regular basis. He has been addressing you guys in various fora. You’ve got plenty of opportunities to talk to the president, including, I might add, in a press conference last week.
Watch above via the White House.
