Inflation, Gas Shortage Highlight Peril That Could Threaten Biden's Agenda
LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:
So far, President Joe Biden has taken on the challenges he expected - COVID, vaccination, schools, unemployment. He's also had some challenges he didn't expect, like gas shortages stemming from a ransomware attack on a pipeline and challenges he didn't expect to take on so soon, like the deepening crisis in the Middle East. Joining me now is NPR political editor Domenico Montanaro. Good morning.
DOMENICO MONTANARO, BYLINE: Good morning, Lulu.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Let's start with the Middle East. Yesterday, Biden spoke separately with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. What do you know about those calls?
MONTANARO: Well, the White House says that President Biden reaffirmed his strong support for Israel's right to defend itself against rocket attacks from Hamas and other terrorist groups in Gaza, it said. But he also voiced concern with Netanyahu about violent confrontations in the West Bank. He expressed support for a two-state solution, which we know has been elusive for decades for lots of U.S. presidents. Biden told Abbas that the U.S. was committed to strengthening the U.S.-Palestinian Partnership and again noted that a negotiated two-state solution is the best path to a lasting resolution.
In response to the Israeli airstrike in Gaza that destroyed the building housing the Associated Press and Al-Jazeera, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki tweeted yesterday that the administration had, quote, "communicated directly to the Israelis that ensuring the safety and security of journalists and independent media is a paramount responsibility."
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Talk me through this, Domenico, because it sounds like the administration is really trying to walk a fine line here.
MONTANARO: Well, any time the U.S. has to deal with the Israel and - with Israel and Mideast peace, it's tricky. The U.S. has traditionally played a somewhat neutral peacemaker role. You might remember, under the Obama administration, the U.S. been pushing, you know, Israel to not expand settlements. But that was ignored. And after the Trump administration took a harder line in support of Israel, you know, it has made the Biden administration's ability to play that neutral peacemaker role a lot harder.
We know that that new administrations all the time are tested by adversaries and sometimes even allies like we're seeing here. And there's also a fine line at home - I mean, not alienating Americans who support Israel or those who are critical of its actions. We saw protests yesterday sweeping across major cities, calling on Israel to end its airstrikes. And there's now even a boycott of the White House virtual event tonight to recognize the Eid al-Fitr holiday. That's a religious holiday that marks the end of the month-long fast of Ramadan. The Council on American-Islamic Relations says that the Biden administration's response to the Mideast crisis has been, quote, "incredibly disappointing and deeply disturbing."
GARCIA-NAVARRO: All right. I just want to shift briefly to the Republicans because, you know, they voted last week to relieve Wyoming's Liz Cheney of her House leadership role and an interesting situation because she's been making the media rounds now, doing the exact thing that the GOP leadership said they wanted her to stop doing, which is forcefully pushing back against the false claims that former President Donald Trump was cheated out of reelection.
MONTANARO: Yeah, Liz Cheney is going to continue to be a thorn in the side of GOP leadership, especially House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. He wants to be speaker. He's made a gamble that, in order to win back the House next year, Republicans have to tie themselves to the Trump train. That's going to be tested. And we have to remember this all comes back to the violence on January 6 and the lie that President Trump continues to tell that he won when he did not.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: And just briefly, has the GOP created a bigger problem for itself?
MONTANARO: We'll see. You know, Cheney could have an impact because it's bad public relations the more she speaks out. But you're right. You know, a lot of people don't necessarily care what happens in Washington. And probably most people could have a hard time picking Kevin McCarthy out of a Rotary Club yearbook, frankly.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: That's NPR political editor Domenico Montanaro. Thank you very much.
MONTANARO: You're welcome.
Copyright © 2021 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.