Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said he hopes President Biden was having a “senior moment” when he threatened to withhold weapons from Israel if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proceeded with an invasion into Rafah in southern Gaza.
Johnson, in a wide-ranging interview with Politico — which will air in full on a forthcoming episode of its “Playbook Deep Dive” podcast — suggested Biden’s comments violated what the Speaker understood to be promises from the president to secure Johnson’s support for the $95 billion emergency foreign aid package.
“I hope — I believe he’s off script,” Johnson said. “I don’t think that’s something that staff told him to say. I hope it’s a senior moment, because that would be a great deviation in what is said to be the policy there.”
On whether he felt betrayed by Biden’s threat, he said, “I got to say that I do, yeah.”
His comments come after Biden warned in a CNN interview that he would delay sending Israel offensive weapons, such as bombs and artillery shells, if Israeli forces launched an invasion of Rafah, laying down a clear line amid outcry over the conflict in Gaza.
“I made it clear that if they go into Rafah — they haven’t gone in Rafah yet — if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities — that deal with that problem,” Biden said Wednesday evening.
The White House fiercely pushed back on Johnson’s suggestion that the president was having a “senior moment,” pointing to examples of other officials in the administration pushing the same talking points, even before Biden’s CNN interview.
“That’s simply false. In fact, senior administration officials had already made multiple public statements about Rafah similar to the president’s, including that we are also ensuring Israel gets every dollar appropriated in the supplemental,” a White House spokesperson, Andrew Bates, said in a statement responding to Johnson’s interview.
“For example, hours before the president’s interview, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin gave congressional testimony that aligned with him,” Bates continued.
Johnson told Politico that Biden’s remarks added to his concern about reports that the U.S. had paused shipments of heavy bombs to Israel.
“And my reaction honestly was, ‘Wow, that is a complete turn from what I have been told even in, you know, recent hours,’” Johnson said. “I mean, 24 hours ago it was confirmed to me by top administration officials that the policy’s very different than what he stated there. So I hope that’s a senior moment.”
The Speaker said, however, that he was assured by Biden administration officials that reports of weapons being cut off were not accurate and did not violate Johnson’s agreement with the president.
“My concern was we got word about these, you know, this shipment of munitions being delayed. And that was a great concern to us, because I got commitments from top administration officials before we passed the supplemental package for the aid to Israel that that would not happen,” Johnson said to Politico.
He added that he was told “in writing and verbally” that there was “no delay in the delivery of weapons to Israel, because it’s so desperately needed.”
Johnson said the White House told him the delayed munitions were from “earlier weapons tranches” and had “nothing to do with the supplemental package that you all passed.”
The White House knocked the Speaker while touting the President’s record on Israel, in the statement Thursday.
“To be fair, we understand the Speaker has a lot to keep up with,” Bates said. “Joe Biden is the only president in our history to have ordered the American military to actively defend Israel from a foreign attack, and the only president to have literally stood with Israel — on Israeli soil — during wartime.”
Updated at 12:56 p.m.