‘I Haven’t Seen That’: Netanyahu Defends ‘Very Clear, Very Focused’ Biden Against ‘Elderly Old Man’ Accusations

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended President Joe Biden’s mental fitness over the weekend when asked about it on ABC’s This Week.

Host Jonathan Karl spoke to Netanyahu at length about the ongoing Israel-Hamas war and Israel’s plans to move into the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

However, at one point during the conversation, Karl turned to domestic U.S. politics and asked, “This week, special counsel, here in the United States described, President Biden as an elderly man with a poor memory. You’ve known Joe Biden for decades, and you’ve dealt with him a lot, over the course of this conflict. What’s your what’s your assessment of him?”

“Well, John, I’ve had more than a dozen phone conversations, extended phone conversations with President Biden. He also came on a visit to Israel during wartime, which was a historic first,” Netanyahu answered, adding:

And I found him very clear, and very focused. We’ve, managed to agree on the war aims and on many things. Sometimes we had disagreements, but they weren’t born of a lack of understanding on his part or on my part. So that’s what I can tell you. So I haven’t seen that.

Biden, who served for decades in the U.S. Senate and was once the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has known Netanyahu for decades and despite animosity during the Obama years has remained a staunch supporter of Israel.
In recent weeks, Politico reported that Biden has become increasingly frustrated with Netanyahu and concerned over the Israeli leader’s intentions.

“ Like everyone in the administration and any Democrat with a pulse, he’s deeply suspicious of Benjamin Netanyahu, and privately has called the Israeli prime minister a “bad fucking guy,” according to people who’ve talked to the president,” reported Jonathan Martin last week, adding:

(Biden spokesperson Andrew Bates said, “the president did not say that, nor would he,” adding that the two leaders have “a decades-long relationship that is respectful in public and in private.”)

Biden’s deep-seated fear: that Netanyahu is eager to drag the U.S. into a wider war in the Middle East, a conflict that would ensure American weapons keep flowing to the region, troops soon follow and, in the maelstrom, international pressure on him to agree to a Gaza cease-fire and his domestic political difficulties both dissipate.

Watch the clip above via ABC.