US President Joe Biden is set to address Americans from the Oval Office
Getty Images/The Washington Post
- President Joe Biden is set to call on Americans to get behind Isreal and Ukraine in a speech broadcast from the Oval Office.
- The address come after he travelled to Israel in the wake of the 7 October attacks by Hamas.
- This will only be the second time Biden delivers a speech from the Oval Office.
US president Joe Biden is set to deliver a rare Oval Office
speech Thursday urging Americans to back Israel and Ukraine at what he says is
a perilous moment for democracy around the globe.
Fresh from a trip to Israel after the 7 October Hamas
attacks, the Democratic president’s primetime address will pitch the case for a
global US role to war-weary voters and isolationist Republicans.
The 80-year-old, who is seeking a second term in 2024, is
preparing to ask the US Congress for a massive $100 billion joint package that
includes funding for Israel and for Ukraine’s battle against Russia’s invasion.
But his speech is expected to be less about money and more
about painting a broader picture to voters, in which the expensive business of
defending allies an ocean away is vital for the United States itself.
“You’ll hear tonight the president describe this
perilous moment that we are in globally, when it comes to our national security
and when it comes to international stability,” US Deputy National Security
Advisor Jon Finer told MSNBC.
“This will also very much be a message to the American
people, how those conflicts connect to our lives back here, how support from
the American people and the Congress is frankly essential.”
The gravity of the situation is underlined by the fact that
it will only be Biden’s second speech from behind the historic Resolute Desk,
which presidents have reserved for moments of key national significance.
‘Adults table’
The first was in June when Biden hailed a deal to avert a US
default after a bitter standoff — an agreement Republicans later reneged on.
The US Congress has now been paralyzed for more than two
weeks as divided Republicans struggle to elect a House speaker, in turn holding
up aid for Ukraine.
Biden hopes to break the logjam by hitching it to assistance
to Israel. He said in Tel Aviv he would ask Congress for an
“unprecedented” package for Israel’s defense this week.
The president will now hope to ride a wave of positive US
media coverage of the trip, hailing him as a global statesman to confront
Republicans in Congress.
Republicans “need to get their act together and join
this president at the adult’s table,” White House Deputy Press Secretary
Andrew Bates said in a statement.
Biden played up the role as he flew home Wednesday, saying
he’d deliberated hard on whether to continue after Jordan and Egypt canceled
talks after a deadly strike on a Gaza hospital.
Egypt’s president later agreed to open the Rafah border
crossing into Israel for aid to Gaza.
“Had we gone and this failed, then, you know, the
United States failed, Biden’s presidency fails,” he told reporters aboard
Air Force One. “And I thought it was worth taking the chance to get it
done.”
READ | Biden says Israeli occupation of Gaza would be a ‘big mistake’, believes Hamas should be eliminated
Trump contrast
Diplomatically, Biden now faces a more severe test as his personal
show of support for Israel means he will be seen in much of the Arab world as
backing an expected Israeli ground invasion of Gaza.
Left-wingers in his own Democratic party have also opposed
his support for Israel.
There is also the risk of a wider conflict. The United
States has already moved two aircraft carriers into the Mediterranean to deter
Iran or Lebanon’s Hezbollah, both allies of Hamas, from getting involved.
Meanwhile, Biden’s support for Israel has not yet translated
into a boost with voters, with his sagging approval ratings rating stuck in the
high 30s to low 40s in polls carried out after the attacks but before the
visit, NBC reported.
But his speech will focus on global leadership – with the
unspoken contrast being that of his likely 2024 rival, Donald Trump.
The hard-right Republican former president has drawn fire
for calling Hezbollah “very smart” and criticizing Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. On Ukraine, Trump has previously praised Russian
President Vladimir Putin.
Russia and China will be in the background of Biden’s
speech, too, with the US president repeatedly warning that authoritarian states
pose a threat to global democracy.