Despite President Joe Biden desperately trying to take credit for the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal, his State Department has admitted that President-elect Donald Trump’s team was “absolutely critical” in securing the deal.
After a press conference on January 15, Biden was asked by a reporter whether the credit for the deal should go to him or incoming President Donald Trump.
Biden gave one of his signature responses, refusing to actually answer the question and getting angry at the reporter.
“Is that a joke?” he replied.
Reporter: Who deserves the credit for this Mr. President you or Trump?
Biden: Is that a joke?
Seems like a pretty legitimate question. pic.twitter.com/lhigRhQx6q
— Assal Rad (@AssalRad) January 15, 2025
However, it was definitely not a joke, as Biden’s State Department spokesman Matthew Miller admitted during a press briefing soon after that Trump’s team deserved praise for negotiating the deal.
“When it comes to the involvement of President-elect Trump’s team, it has been absolutely critical in getting this deal over the line,” he said.
Miller went on to note that the Trump team’s involvement in negotiating the deal was critical because the vast majority of the agreement will have to be carried out by the Trump administration, as Biden is leaving office on January 20.
“And it’s been critical because obviously, as I stand here today, this administration’s term in office will expire in five days, and one of the things that we have always said about this deal is that when you get from stage one to stage two that the United States, Egypt, and Qatar are the guarantors of this deal,” Miller explained. “And Egypt and Qatar will push Hamas to stay at the bargaining table and to get from stage one to stage two and the United States will push Israel to stay at the bargaining table to get from phase one and phase two.”
He further explained that both Biden’s envoys and Trump’s envoys took part in negotiating the deal — noting that the administration allowed Trump’s incoming special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, to lead the peace talks.
“I don’t know if it’s unprecedented to have envoys from an outgoing and an incoming administration sitting at the same table negotiating a ceasefire agreement of this kind, but if it’s not unprecedented, it certainly unusual,” Miller said.
“And we, of course, thank the Trump team for working with this on this ceasefire agreement. We think it’s important that they were at the table,” he added.
🚨STATE DEPT: "When it comes to the involvement of President-elect Trump's team, it has been absolutely critical in getting this deal over the line."
"We, of course, thank the Trump team." pic.twitter.com/yL3U8y3PO2
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) January 15, 2025
Of course, it’s plainly obvious that Biden has no right to take credit for this deal, as he had more than 15 months to negotiate a peace deal and failed spectacularly — while this new agreement only came in the lead up to Trump taking office, and Trump has been very explicit in his vows that the gates of hell would be unleashed if Hamas did not release the hostages before he takes office.
Meanwhile, even Israeli outlet Haaretz is reporting that Trump’s team was responsible for the deal, with the outlet’s political correspondent Chaim Levinson reporting: “Witkoff has forced Israel to accept a plan that Netanyahu had repeatedly rejected over the past half year.”
Israeli media reports Israel accepted a peace deal because of Trump. The Israeli Right says blames Trump for it. Even anti-Trump outlets in the US (like the NYT) say Trump was a key factor.
Only Biden insists he got it done: a huge coincidence it never happened until Trump won. https://t.co/tGqsUoJAPY
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 15, 2025