WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday said she urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a cease-fire deal soon with Hamas so that dozens of hostages held by the militants in Gaza since Oct. 7 can return home.
Harris said she had a “frank and constructive” conversation with Netanyahu in which she affirmed Israel’s right to defend itself but also expressed deep concern about the high death toll in Gaza over nine months of war and the “dire” humanitarian situation there.
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Vice President Kamala Harris steps off of Air Force Two upon arrival at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Thursday, July 25, 2024. Harris is returning to Washington from Texas and she is scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (Brendan Smialowski/Pool via AP)
Vice President Kamala Harris, right, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appear before a meeting at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington, Thursday, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
Vice President Kamala Harris steps off of Air Force Two upon arrival at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Thursday, July 25, 2024. Harris is returning to Washington from Texas and she is scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (Brendan Smialowski/Pool via AP)
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby speaks during the daily briefing at the White House, Thursday, July 25, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre looks on as White House national security communications advisor John Kirby speaks during the daily briefing at the White House, Thursday, July 25, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives to meet with President Joe Biden in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, July 25, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
President Joe Biden meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Thursday, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
President Joe Biden meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Thursday, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
President Joe Biden meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Thursday, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to a joint meeting of Congress at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, July 24, 2024, as House Speaker Mike Johnson of La., and Senate Foreign Relations Chair Ben Cardin, D-Md., listen. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
U.S. Capitol police watch demonstrators marching outside of the U.S. Capitol as they protest the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, July 24, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to a joint meeting of Congress at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, July 24, 2024, as House Speaker Mike Johnson of La., and Senate Foreign Relations Chair Ben Cardin, D-Md., listen. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
With all eyes on the likely Democratic presidential nominee, Harris largely reiterated President Joe Biden's longstanding message that it's time to find an endgame to the brutal war in Gaza, where more than 39,000 Palestinians have died. Yet she offered a more forceful tone about the urgency of the moment just one day after Netanyahu gave a fiery speech to Congress in which he defended the war, vowed “total victory” against Hamas and made relatively scant mention of cease-fire negotiations.
“There has been hopeful movement in the talks to secure an agreement on this deal,” Harris told reporters shortly after meeting with Netanyahu. “And as I just told Prime Minister Netanyahu, it is time to get this deal done.”
Netanyahu met separately earlier in the day with Biden, who has also been calling on Israel and Hamas to come to an agreement on a U.S.-backed, three-phase deal to bring home remaining hostages and establish an extended cease-fire.
The White House said in a statement that Biden discussed with Netanyahu “the need to close the remaining gaps, finalize the deal as soon as possible, bring the hostages home, and reach a durable end to the war in Gaza.” Biden and Netanyahu also discussed improving the flow of aid into Gaza as well as the ongoing threat posed by Iranian-backed militant groups, including Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.
Harris said after her meeting with Netanyahu that Israel’s war in Gaza is more complicated than simply being supportive of one side or the other.
“Too often, the conversation is binary when the reality is anything but,” Harris said.
Harris also condemned Hamas' brutality. White House national security spokesperson John Kirby reiterated the administration position that the militant group that killed some 1,200 on Oct. 7 and kidnapped 250 people from Israel ultimately holds responsibility for the suffering in Gaza and must come to terms with Israel.
Kirby added that gaps between the two sides can be closed “but there are issues that need to be resolved that will require some leadership, some compromise."
With Harris' forceful comments, the administration also appeared to be stepping up pressure on the Israelis to not let the moment pass to get a deal done.
“What has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is devastating. The images of dead children and desperate, hungry people fleeing for safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third or fourth time,” Harris said. “We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering. And I will not be silent.”
Thousands protested Netanyahu’s visit in Washington, and Harris condemned those who were violent or used rhetoric that praised Hamas.
Netanyahu, last at the White House when former President Donald Trump was in office, is headed to Florida on Friday to meet with the Republican presidential nominee.
Ahead of the Harris-Netanyahu meeting Thursday, Trump said at a rally in North Carolina the vice president was “totally against the Jewish people."
Harris has long spoken of her strong support for Israel. The first overseas trip of her Senate career in early 2017 was to Israel, and one of her first acts in office was to introduce a resolution opposing a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Israel.
She’s also spoken of her personal ties to Israel, including memories of raising money as a child to plant trees in Israel and installing a mezuzah near the front door of the vice president’s residence in Washington — her husband is Jewish. She also has connections to pro-Israel groups including the conservative American Israel Public Affairs Committee and the liberal J Street.
For Harris, the meeting with Netanyahu was an opportunity to demonstrate that she has the mettle to serve as commander in chief. She’s being scrutinized by those on the political left who say Biden hasn’t done enough to force Netanyahu to end the war and by Republicans looking to brand her as insufficient in her support for Israel.
Harris’ last one-on-one engagement with Netanyahu was in March 2021, but she’s taken part in more than 20 calls between Biden and Netanyahu.
The conservative Likud Party leader Netanyahu and centrist Democrat Biden have had ups-and-downs over the years. Netanyahu, in what will likely be his last White House meeting with Biden, reflected on the roughly 40 years they've known each other and thanked the president for his service.
“From a proud Jewish Zionist to a proud Irish American Zionist, I want to thank you for 50 years of public service and 50 years of support for the state of Israel,” Netanyahu told Biden.
A U.S.-backed proposal to release remaining hostages in Gaza over three phases is something that would be a legacy-affirming achievement for Biden, who abandoned his reelection bid and endorsed Harris. It could also be a boon for Harris in her bid to succeed him.
Following their talks, Biden and Netanyahu met with the families of American hostages.
Jonathan Dekel-Chen, the father of hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen, said the families received an “ironclad commitment” from Biden and Netanyahu to get the hostages home. He said he was more hopeful than at anytime since Hamas released more than 100 hostages during a temporary cease-fire in November.
“There is more reason today than in any time since the last round of hostage releases that something can happen,” he said.
Netanyahu is trying to navigate his own delicate political moment. He faces pressure from the families of hostages demanding a cease-fire agreement to bring their loved ones home and from far-right members of his governing coalition who demand he resist any deal that could keep Israeli forces from eliminating Hamas.
In his speech to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, Netanyahu offered a robust defense of Israel's conduct during the war and lashed out against accusations by the International Criminal Court of Israeli war crimes. He made the case that Israel, in its fight against Iran-backed Hamas, was effectively keeping “Americans boots off the ground while protecting our shared interests in the Middle East.”
“Remember this: Our enemies are your enemies,” Netanyahu said. “Our fight, it’s your fight. And our victory will be your victory. ”
Netanyahu also derided protesters who massed near the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, calling them Iran’s “useful idiots.”
Harris on Thursday said she was outraged that some protesters tagged areas near the U.S. Capitol with pro-Hamas graffiti, expressed support for the militants and burned a U.S. flag at Union Station.
“Pro-Hamas graffiti and rhetoric is abhorrent and we must not tolerate it in our nation,” Harris said in a statement. “I condemn the burning of the American flag. That flag is a symbol of our highest ideals as a nation and represents the promise of America. It should never be desecrated in that way.”
Protesters massed near the White House on Thursday chanted, “Arrest Netanyahu,” and brought an effigy of the prime minister with blood on its hands and wearing an orange jumpsuit. A small number of counterprotesters wore Israeli flags around their shoulders.
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AP writer Ashraf Khalil contributed reporting.
Vice President Kamala Harris steps off of Air Force Two upon arrival at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Thursday, July 25, 2024. Harris is returning to Washington from Texas and she is scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (Brendan Smialowski/Pool via AP)
Vice President Kamala Harris, right, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appear before a meeting at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington, Thursday, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
Vice President Kamala Harris steps off of Air Force Two upon arrival at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Thursday, July 25, 2024. Harris is returning to Washington from Texas and she is scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (Brendan Smialowski/Pool via AP)
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby speaks during the daily briefing at the White House, Thursday, July 25, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre looks on as White House national security communications advisor John Kirby speaks during the daily briefing at the White House, Thursday, July 25, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives to meet with President Joe Biden in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, July 25, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
President Joe Biden meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Thursday, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
President Joe Biden meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Thursday, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
President Joe Biden meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Thursday, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to a joint meeting of Congress at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, July 24, 2024, as House Speaker Mike Johnson of La., and Senate Foreign Relations Chair Ben Cardin, D-Md., listen. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
U.S. Capitol police watch demonstrators marching outside of the U.S. Capitol as they protest the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, July 24, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to a joint meeting of Congress at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, July 24, 2024, as House Speaker Mike Johnson of La., and Senate Foreign Relations Chair Ben Cardin, D-Md., listen. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
Donald Trump began his first day as the 47th president of the United States with a dizzying display of force, signing a blizzard of executive orders that signaled his desire to remake American institutions while also pardoning nearly all of his supporters who rioted at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
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Speaking to Fox News, press secretary Karoline Leavitt declined to detail the announcement before Trump spoke at 4 p.m. Tuesday but said it would also send a signal to the world.
“You won’t want to miss it,” she said. Trump is also scheduled to attend a national prayer service Tuesday morning at Washington National Cathedral.
House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune are heading to the White House to meet with Trump on Tuesday.
It’s the first formal sit down for the GOP leadership teams including Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Senate GOP Whip John Barrasso and the new president as they chart priorities with the sweep of Republican power in Washington.
Despite an ambitious 100-days agenda, the Republican-led Congress isn’t on the same page on some of the basics of their ideas and strategies as they rush to deliver tax cuts for the wealthy, mass deportations and other priorities for Trump.
He pledged to remove more than 1,000 presidential appointees “who are not aligned with our vision.”
In a post on his TruthSocial platform, Trump dismissed chef and humanitarian Jose Andres from the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition, Ret. Gen. Mark Milley from the National Infrastructure Advisory Council, former State Dept. official Brian Hook from the board of the Wilson Center, and former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms from the President’s Export Council.
“YOUR’E FIRED!” he wrote in a post just after midnight Tuesday.
Milley, the former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff under Trump, received a pardon from former President Joe Biden on Monday over concerns he could be criminally targeted by the new administration. His portrait in the Pentagon was also removed. Hook, who was Trump’s Iran envoy during his first term, had been involved in the Trump administration transition. No reasoning was given for his firing.
Former President Joe Biden also removed many Trump appointees in his first days in office, including former press secretary Sean Spicer from the board overseeing the U.S. Naval Acadamy.
Rep. Elise Stefanik is likely to face questions at her confirmation hearing Tuesday to become the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations about her lack of foreign policy experience, her strong support for Israel and her views on funding the U.N. and its many agencies.
Harvard-educated and the fourth-ranking member of the U.S. House, she was elected to Congress in 2015 as a moderate Republican and is leaving a decade later as one of President Trump’s most ardent allies.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “looks forward to working again with President Trump on his second term,” U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said Monday.
When she appears before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Stefanik is likely to be grilled about her views on the wars in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan and elsewhere as well as the North Korean and Iranian nuclear programs — all issues on the U.N. agenda.
▶ Read more about Elise Stefanik’s confirmation hearing
Scholz said at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Tuesday that “not every press conference in Washington, not every tweet should send us straight into excited, existential debates. That’s also the case after the change of government that took place in Washington yesterday.”
Scholz said the U.S. is Germany’s closest ally outside Europe and he’ll do everything to keep in that way.
He acknowledged that Trump and his administration “will keep the world on tenterhooks in the coming years” in energy, climate, trade and security policy. But he said “we can and will deal with all this, without unnecessary agitation and outrage, but also without false ingratiation or telling people what they want to hear.”
Scholz said of Trump’s “America First” approach that there’s nothing wrong with looking to the interests of one’s own country – “we all do that. But it is also the case that cooperation and agreement with others are mostly also in one’s interest.”
Speaking in the Oval Office Monday, Trump rejected Biden’s warning that the U.S. is becoming an “ oligarchy ” for tech billionaires, saying the executives supported Democrats until they realized Biden “didn’t know what the hell he was talking about.”
“They did desert him,” Trump added. “They were all with him, every one of them, and now they are all with me.”
Despite taking millions from the executives and their companies for his inaugural committee — and receiving more than $200 million in assistance from Musk in his presidential campaign — Trump claimed he didn’t need their money and they wouldn’t be receiving anything in return.
“They’re not going to get anything from me,” Trump said. “I don’t need money, but I do want the nation to do well, and they’re smart people and they create a lot of jobs.”
Some of the most exclusive seats at Trump’s inauguration on Monday were reserved for powerful tech CEOs who also happen to be among the world’s richest men.
That’s a shift from tradition, especially for a president who has characterized himself as a champion of the working class. Seats so close to the president are usually reserved for the president’s family, past presidents and other honored guests.
The mega-rich have long had a prominent role in national politics, and several billionaires helped bankroll the campaign of Trump’s Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.
But the inaugural display highlights the unusually direct role the world’s wealthiest people will likely have in the new administration. In his outgoing address, Biden warned that the U.S. was becoming an oligarchy of tech billionaires wielding dangerous levels of power and influence on the nation.
▶ Read more about the billionaires at Trump’s inauguration
Outside the National Cathedral, just a few hours before the Interfaith Service of Prayer for the Nation, which both President Trump and Vice President JD Vance are expected to attend, the scene before was decidedly quiet.
At the Cathedral only a few dog walkers dotted the sidewalk and the police presence was low.
It was a far cry from yesterday when thousands lined up in downtown D.C. festooned in the red regalia of MAGA nation — or the security and foot traffic from earlier this month for the funeral service of former President Jimmy Carter where Secret Service vehicles could be seen at least a mile from the Cathedral.
The Senate quickly confirmed Marco Rubio as secretary of state Monday, voting unanimously to give Trump the first member of his new Cabinet on Inauguration Day.
Rubio, the Republican senator from Florida, is among the least controversial of Trump’s nominees and vote was decisive, 99-0.
It’s often tradition for the Senate to convene immediately after the ceremonial pomp of the inauguration to begin putting the new president’s team in place, particularly the national security officials.
▶ Read more about Marco Rubio’s confirmation
All the living former presidents were there and the outgoing president amicably greeted his successor, who gave a speech about the country’s bright future and who left to the blare of a brass band.
At first glance, President Donald Trump’ssecond inauguration seemed like a continuation of the country’s nearly 250-year-long tradition of peaceful transfers of power, essential to its democracy. And there was much to celebrate: Trump won a free and fair election last fall, and his supporters hope he will be able to fix problems at the border, end the war in Ukraine and get inflation under control.
Still, on Monday, the warning signs were clear.
Due to frigid temperatures, Trump’s swearing-in was held in the Capitol Rotunda, where rioters seeking to keep him in power the last time roamed during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack. Trump walked into the space from the hall leading to the building’s west front tunnel, where some of the worst hand-to-hand combat between Trump supporters and police occurred that day.
After giving a speech pledging that “never again” would the government “persecute political opponents,” Trump then gave a second, impromptu address to a crowd of supporters. The president lamented that his inaugural address had been sanitized, said he would shortly pardon the Jan. 6 rioters and fumed at last-minute preemptive pardons issued by outgoing President Joe Biden to the members of the congressional committee that investigated the attack.
▶ Read more about Trump’s Inauguration Day
President Donald Trump signs an executive order to create the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington, as White House staff secretary Will Scharf watches. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Donald Trump speaks as first lady Melania Trump listens at the Commander in Chief Ball, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump signs an executive order on TikTok in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)