On-the-Record Press Gaggle by White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby
Via Teleconference
8:45 A.M. EDT
MR. KIRBY: Thanks very much. I’ll just keep it short because I know you got questions.
A really terrific day here in Berlin for the President. I think you all saw how significant and emotional he was over — getting the Order of Merit from President Steinmeier. He also had a chance bilaterally to meet with the President on issues like Ukraine and the Middle East.
And then we came over here to the Chancellor. He had some one-on-one time with Chancellor Scholz and then a working lunch. Unsurprisingly, the main topics of discussion were, of course, Ukraine. Further discussions about how we were going to continue to work with the EU to find a way to employ Russian sovereign assets to help with Ukraine’s reconstruction — that was a topic.
Of course, there was also the issue of what’s going on on the battlefield and where the Germans see their perspectives about where the Ukrainian Armed Forces are, sort of President Biden sharing our perspective on how things are going on the battlefield.
And then, of course, they talked about President Zelenskyy’s victory plan and how we can all work together to try to see if we can’t get to a just peace that President Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian people will approve of and, of course, you know, can implement.
And then, now, the President is meeting with the European Quad leaders. That’s going on right now. I’m not in that room, but we’ll have a readout when it’s over. And again, I have no doubt that issues regarding Ukraine and the Middle East will come up as well in the Quad.
I forgot to mention — in the working lunch with Chancellor Scholz, they also did spend some time talking about the Middle East and the developments yesterday and how that might affect where we go forward here in terms of trying to find a way to end the war and with the opportunity that Sinwar’s death now provides us.
So, again, that’s just kind of a rough summary of the discussions, and we will absolutely have a readout for you of the Quad meeting when it’s over.
So I can take some questions.
Q John, real fast: Prime Minister Netanyahu today said, “We have before us a great opportunity to stop the axis of evil and create a different future.” What gives the U.S. confidence, after Sinwar’s death, that Israel is ready for a ceasefire, that it sees a ceasefire as its best option?
MR. KIRBY: We believe — continue to believe that finding an end to the war is critical, and we also believe that Mr. Sinwar’s death yesterday can provide an inflection point to getting there.
I mean, look at what the Israeli Defense Forces have been able to do against Hamas. I mean, they’ve really decimated their leadership, now knocking out the top leader himself. They have, without question, completely eliminated any immediate threat that Hamas would pose from a military perspective. They’ve knocked out military command structure. They’ve gone after weapons caches. They’ve made it much more difficult for Hamas to operate and act, plan and execute the way they did on October 7th.
So, Hamas is in a much, much, much weakened position than it ever was before. The President believes that certainly with Sinwar’s killing yesterday, that there’s a unique opportunity here for us all to kind of grab hold of to see what we can do to end the war and to get a ceasefire. And we still believe that a ceasefire — actually, in the north too — but we still believe a ceasefire is important for Gaza to get those hostages home.
So you asked me what gives us confidence. I think, first of all, one thing that gives us confidence that now is a propitious opportunity is the incredible work that the IDF has done in decimating Hamas and now killing Hamas’s leadership.
Q But I guess the core question was: What gives you confidence that Prime Minister Netanyahu shares that view? Does he share the view that you just articulated?
MR. KIRBY: Well, I’ll let the Prime Minister speak for himself. I mean, he said himself yesterday that this does provide a unique opportunity.
Now, what we’ll do is continue to have consultations with our Israeli counterparts about how we take advantage of that opportunity. The President still believes that intensive diplomacy is still the preferred path. And now with Sinwar gone, we are in a unique opportunity to really take that to the next level, try to get a ceasefire in Gaza, but, as well, to try to get a ceasefire up in the north against Hezbollah, and then, again, do everything we can to prevent this from escalating.
Q Just to follow up on that, you know, in the past few months, when Israel has taken action against others — Nasrallah’s killing as an example — the big concern was that that had the potential to truly escalate the conflict in the Middle East into something closer to a regional conflict. I guess I don’t quite understand. Is the idea here that Sinwar was the chief stumbling block to a ceasefire, and with him gone, the remaining leadership that are sitting in Qatar, or wherever they are, are somehow going to be less of an obstacle to a ceasefire? Is that the opportunity that you’re sort of dancing around?
MR. KIRBY: Yes. I’m not — sorry if I’m dancing. I’m not trying to dance.
Q Not you personally, but —
MR. KIRBY: But, yes, Sinwar was the main obstacle to getting a ceasefire done. Every time his political advisors would — we’d negotiate with and through them to come up with a proposal, it would have to get to him. Of course, that took time because of the communications challenges. And then he would just — he would just refute it and refuse to move forward.
And it’s not as if — as I’ve said this before, it’s not as if the Israelis weren’t willing to continue to find compromises, and they did. Each and every time, Sinwar found a way to stop it. Now he’s gone. So, we’ll see. I mean, Hamas, obviously, will make their own decisions about what their structure is going to look like and if and who might replace Mr. Sinwar.
But, yes, his death does provide a unique opportunity here to try to take advantage of where we are with Hamas, where Israel is with Hamas, and see if we can’t get a ceasefire in place.
Q But you haven’t gotten yet. I mean, I know it’s early, it’s less than 24 hours, but you haven’t gotten any signals from those political Hamas officials that you were dealing through Qatar and whatever —
MR. KIRBY: Not that I’m aware of. Not that I’m aware of.
Q — they haven’t sort of said, “Oh, well, let’s start talking again”?
MR. KIRBY: Not that I’m aware of. But as you rightly pointed out, I mean, this just happened yesterday.
We believe — and it was in the — look, it was in the President’s statement. You know, the obstacle that was Sinwar has now been removed. There’s a lot more work to be done. And when the President is talking about that work, he’s talking about getting the diplomatic path back into some kind of swing.
Q John, to your point about Sinwar, what are your fears as Hamas regroups? What are your chief concerns right now?
MR. KIRBY: Well, obviously, we’re going to be watching to see what they do here. They have been — as I said, the leadership decimated, military structure decimated, but they still are a presence in Gaza, and they still do have some capability, so we’re certainly going to be watching that carefully. And I’ve seen some statements out of them today, you know, basically pledging to continue the conflict and continue the war.
They are in such a dramatically weakened position, it’s difficult to see from where we sit that they could perpetrate anything close to what they did on the 7th of October. But that doesn’t mean that they aren’t still lethal to some degree, and so we’re going to have to watch that carefully.
So, two things. One, we’re going to continue to support Israel with defensive capabilities. And that’s not going to stop. Just because Mr. Sinwar is gone, it doesn’t mean that we’re going to, in some way, diminish our support to Israel and their defense capabilities.
Two, as the President said last night to you all, this is an opportunity now to really step up and see what we can explore in terms of opportunities for a diplomatic solution and getting a ceasefire in place.
We have to all — as we sit here, I mean, today, those hostages are still being held somewhere in Gaza, likely in tunnels, and their lives are still greatly at risk. And there’s a keen sense of urgency — there has been, of course — but now, with Mr. Sinwar’s passing, it really underscores for us how urgent it is to see what we can do to get those hostages home. And you heard Prime Minister Netanyahu say the same thing yesterday.
Q Let me ask a Ukraine question. So, with regards to President Zelenskyy’s peace proposal and the two points — membership in NATO before the end of Biden’s presidency and also nuclear capabilities — where does the White House stand on that? Have you had any change of heart or change of mind on that? And how are you doing on the $50 billion loan?
MR. KIRBY: Sorry, your first question was where’s our policy on what?
Q On the peace — on the victory plan.
MR. KIRBY: Oh, yeah.
Look, the President appreciated President Zelenskyy bringing it to the Oval Office and having a discussion about the victory plan.
We’re obviously still digging through the details of it, so I’m not going to get into the nuts and bolts on every little item in it. But I will say that, as we’ve made clear, we support President Zelenskyy’s plan for a just peace. It’s critical that whatever that peace looks like, it has to be acceptable to him and to the Ukrainian people. And we’re certainly not going to have any discussions about Ukraine without Ukraine. And we’re certainly not going to have any discussions with foreign leaders that don’t comport with what we believe President Zelenskyy’s plans are for a just peace.
Q The four leaders are literally having discussions about Ukraine without Ukraine right now, today.
MR. KIRBY: With leaders who don’t — as I finished in my sentence, we’re not going to have discussions with leaders who don’t also comport to that plan, the idea of following through on his just peace plan.
Q Kirby, can you give a sense of to what extent President Biden is addressing the election on his trip here? It obviously overhangs some of the things that he’s talking about in terms of alliances, in terms of what’s next for Ukraine. How is he addressing that writ large?
MR. KIRBY: The discussions he’s having today are not about the election. It’s really about — well, first of all, thanking the German people for their incredible support of Ukraine, obviously showing his gratitude to the leadership here, President Steinmeier and Chancellor Scholz.
But it’s really more about — as I kind of said in my opening statement, these are policy-heavy discussions, including the one he’s having right now, about some of the key still-open issues affecting our collective security, and that’s the war in Ukraine, and, of course, what’s going on in the Middle East, and really trying to work on policy solutions to solve these problems. I mean, that’s really the gist of the meetings that he’s been at.
Q But —
Q Hold on, hold on. I’ll follow up.
I understand that it’s not a meeting about the election, but Europe is worried, and what happens in the U.S. election will help determine what happens next on those issues. So, you know, what reassurances can he give, or can he just not, because he doesn’t know? Nobody knows who’s going to win.
MR. KIRBY: I think his purpose for coming and the thrust of his discussions are really about reaffirming everything that he’s done as President and Commander-in-Chief over the last three-plus years to improve alliances and partnerships, make them stronger, make them bigger, create ones where they didn’t exist before, and work together on cooperative solutions for some of these challenges.
Now, we’ve been talking about Ukraine and the Middle East, but they are also talking about climate change. They’re talking about terrorism. They’re, you know, talking about, you know, clean energy transition. All these transnational challenges that are before us.
And his purpose is to reaffirm his commitment as President of the United States to seeing through, with the time he has left, on all those solutions. I mean, nobody can be perfectly predictive about what’s going to happen next month. And that’s democracy, and that’s the way it works.
Q He says all the time that whenever he comes to Europe, they want to know — remember the whole speech that he used to give at the beginning of his presidency about —
MR. KIRBY: I’ll let — I will —
Q — but how — so, like, are they asking him?
MR. KIRBY: I will let the foreign leaders speak for themselves. I’m not going to talk for them or what’s on their minds.
Let me just tell — let me just put it this way, and I saw it today: American leadership matters to leaders here. The United States matters. The effect — you heard it in the speech that President Steinmeier gave today, that President Biden’s personal leadership has mattered when it comes to European security. And the continent’s security has changed over the last three-plus years thanks to what Mr. Putin did.
So, yes, he hears frequently from foreign leaders how important his personal leadership has been and his stewardship of these relationships, but also how important American leadership matters on the world stage. So I’d leave it at that.
Q John, I’m going to try one more time here. You’ve talked about how the President —
MR. KIRBY: You guys keep on trying. I have to take away from that that I’m being unsatisfactory. (Laughter.)
Q Well, you said the President is here to cement his legacy, but he has less than a hundred days in office. Is part of cementing that legacy handing over some of these achievements and responsibilities to European allies because of uncertainty about our election?
MR. KIRBY: Well, so, first of all, I didn’t say he’s cementing his legacy. He’s reaffirming all the things that he has done and making sure that these European leaders know that for the remainder of his time in office he’s going to keep working on these same goals. So it’s not about cementing a legacy.
I’m sorry, and the second part of your question was?
Q So, as part of reaffirming his legacy, and with less than a hundred days left in office, is he preparing to hand over some of these things to European allies, given the uncertainty about our election?
MR. KIRBY: No, this was not about handing over. This wasn’t — these discussions today and the one going on right now is not about handing over responsibilities. It is about talking to our allies and partners about what together we can continue to do to help Ukraine win this war, to bring the war in the Middle East to an end, and to address all those other transnational challenges.
One of the things that the President is not only aware of but constantly restates is that while, you know, America is — the United States is the indispensable nation, he likes to say the “essential nation,” that we’ve got to have allies and partners in these challenges with us.
First of all, it lends greater credibility to an effort if you’ve got partners. And as I said, where there wasn’t an alliance or partnership to deal with a problem, President Biden has gone and created it. The 50-plus Ramstein Group nations helping Ukraine and 20-plus nations that are helping in the Red Sea to beat back Houthi attacks on commercial shipping. And concomitantly with that, an understanding by him that some nations have unique capabilities that we don’t have, and the ability to have conversations we can’t have that are critical to solving these problems. So that’s what it’s really all about.
Q Can I ask a follow-up on Ukraine? You mentioned the victory plan and the discussions about that too. Yesterday in Brussels, the Chancellor was very open about his — or very clear about his opposition to major parts in Zelenskyy’s victory plan, and Zelenskyy himself seemed a little frustrated by the conversations he had in Brussels yesterday. So, I’m wondering — and also, the U.S. seems to take issue with some big parts in that victory plan. So what is the path forward here? What can the U.S., and maybe Germany also, offer? What’s the game plan? Because the President himself said a tough winter is coming —
MR. KIRBY: He did, yeah.
Q And that’s the only thing that’s on the table right now. So where are we there, and what’s the way forward?
MR. KIRBY: The Quad leaders are meeting today, as you know, and they’re going to be talking about the victory plan. As we’ve said — and I can — you know, it’s the same thing I would say today — we are still going through the victory plan in detail. We’re still talking to our Ukrainian counterparts about it. Today, the President has an opportunity to get the perspectives of these European leaders and to share his perspective on it.
Look, again, without getting into — as I refused to do earlier, we’re not getting into every clause and subparagraph on this thing. I would just tell you that we appreciate and respect the work that President Zelenskyy put into it and the thoughtfulness that he put into it, and we’re going to continue to work with him and his team to see what this just peace can and should look like, but with a recognition that — look, we believe that the best way the war ends is through a negotiated settlement, but it has to be up to President Zelenskyy to determine if and when that occurs and what the circumstances are.
Q If I may, it’s not about the small details, though; it’s about the big lines in the victory plan that are an obstacle, obviously, like an unconditional invitation to NATO or long-range weapon use, like Western weapon use in Russian territory. That’s not small and minor details. That’s the big, you know, pillars of this victory plan. So if you’re not in line there, what’s the future of this plan?
MR. KIRBY: Why don’t we let the Quad leaders sit and talk about this before I go characterizing their positions on each of the components of it. I’m not going to do that. We’ve been very consistent with respect to NATO. And I think somebody asked me a NATO question. NATO is going to be in Ukraine’s future. No question about that. The first thing we have to do is help them win this war. We got to make sure that they have what they need now. And that’s why they talked about the battlefield today with Chancellor Scholz.
Second is we got to make sure that if and when and however this war ends, Ukraine has the ability to not only have a strong, vibrant defense industrial base, but that they have pledging commitments from other countries, including the United States, for long-term security needs that they’re going to have. They’re still going to have a long border with Russia no matter how this war ends. They got to be able to deal with a potentially continued aggressive Russia.
And then, even while all that’s going on, we’re going to continue to work with Ukraine on the necessary reforms that they will need to make in order to apply for NATO membership. NATO isn’t [sic] going to be in their future. We’ve put forward some pathways and some milestones to help them get there. And that’s where we are. That’s where we are in the United States.
Q I just heard you say NATO isn’t going to be in their future. Did you mean NATO is —
MR. KIRBY: I said it is.
Q — going to be in their future?
MR. KIRBY: Yeah. Did I say “isn’t”?
Q Yeah.
MR. KIRBY: No, NATO is going to be in Ukraine’s future.
Q Back to the Middle East for a second. If and when the day comes when you do sit down again on the ceasefire proposal, is the current one on the table, the one that you’re working off of? Or does the Sinwar situation mean you have to sort of go back to the drawing board or (inaudible)?
MR. KIRBY: Well, (inaudible) that the ceasefire talks have been moribund now for several weeks because Mr. Sinwar simply refused. And I wish I could tell you today that we’re getting the teams back together in Doha and we’re starting afresh. That’s not where we are right now.
I suspect — again, I don’t want to speculate, but I suspect that if and when we can get those talks back in place, the starting point will be where we left it. Where that goes, I just don’t know. We’re not in a position right now where serious negotiations are in the offing.
Q And on the conversation yesterday with Prime Minister Netanyahu, obviously the Sinwar death was, you know, top of the conversation, I assume. But did they also talk at all about what the retaliation for the Iran strikes will be?
MR. KIRBY: As far as I understand, it was a very short call, mostly to congratulate him on killing Sinwar and then talking about the opportunity that Sinwar’s death now gives us, as I said earlier, in the diplomatic space. That was the main focus.
Q Do you have a better understanding, though, on timing and scope of what they might do?
MR. KIRBY: I’ll let the Israelis speak to their operations potential or otherwise.
Q You don’t have to tell me what they’re doing, but do you have a good understanding of it?
MR. KIRBY: I’m just — I’m not going to get into the specifics of diplomatic conversations we’ve had with the Israelis, and I’m certainly not going to talk about or speculate of any at all about their any potential military operations.
Q How diminished are Hamas’s capacity right now? How big a threat are they, in your assessment?
MR. KIRBY: Greatly diminished.
Q You said they couldn’t do — like, is it enough that you think that forces the peace? Is that kind of the argument you’re making?
MR. KIRBY: We believe that with Sinwar’s killing, not only has the main obstacle to ceasefire negotiations been removed — and hopefully we can get that restarted with him now no longer in the position he was to block it — but also, as I said earlier, and I think it was in the President’s statement, the military structure of Hamas has just been nearly decimated. They are absolutely incapable, as you and I are speaking here today, of conducting another attack on the scale of October 7th. But as I also said a little earlier, they still exist as a terrorist organization. They’re still in Gaza. They’re still holding hostages. And, yes, they still have some capability left to them.
So there’s still a lethality to Hamas that just can’t be underestimated. But I couldn’t put a percentage on it for you, like, you know, 70 percent diminished, 80 percent. I don’t know that. I just know that they are a shadow of their former self right now.
Q Mr. Kirby, about next month’s Ramstein meeting that President Biden is going to chair, what do you expect? What should we watch for at next month’s —
MR. KIRBY: The President is looking forward to hosting this Ramstein Group at the leader level. It’s going to be done virtually instead of in person. I’m certainly not prepared a month out to get into the specific deliverables. But as you have seen with every Ramstein Group meeting in the past, there has been a set of deliverables for Ukraine and Ukrainian security assistance by every — or not by every, but by most nations who attend.
You come to the Ramstein Group with the expectation that you’re all going to talk collaboratively about how to improve Ukraine’s security assistance. So, I fully expect that you’ll see the United States come to the Ramstein Group meeting, virtual though it is, with additional commitments to Ukraine’s security. What those are right now, I’m not in a position to say.
Q Would there be an answer, point by point, to a Ukrainian victory plan, to Zelenskyy’s plan?
MR. KIRBY: The purpose of the Ramstein Group, just to remind everybody — the fancy name for it is Ukraine Defense Contact Group — is really defense leaders coming together from all these 50-plus nations to pledge security assistance commitments, and I would expect that that would be the same approach for the next Ramstein Group.
As I said, we’re still working our way through the victory plan; so are many of our allies. We’re still talking to President Zelenskyy about it. Whatever the peace looks like, as I said earlier, we want to make sure that it meets President Zelenskyy’s and the Ukrainian people’s expectations.
Q Is there any pressure here from the Quad or from Scholz about what America can deliver for Ukraine after the election but before Biden is out of office?
MR. KIRBY: I did not detect any discussion of that regard today, the pressure from or a specific request from Germany for us to do, you know, XYZ between the election and Inauguration Day.
What I will tell you and what we have told the Germans is that the President has every expectation of fulfilling all our commitments under the PDA authority that he has left for the rest of this year, this calendar year. And so, I think you just saw him announce another drawdown package when President Zelenskyy was in town. You’ll see those still coming on a fairly regular, frequent basis as we get all the way through the calendar year.
AIDE: And we’re just running a little bit low on time. Do you want to take one or two from the virtual (inaudible) as well?
MR. KIRBY: Let me take one more here, and then we can go virtual.
Q Have there been any outreach to partners in Egypt and Qatar about a possible ceasefire?
MR. KIRBY: As I said earlier, that process hasn’t borne any fruit for many, many weeks. And though I would love to sit here and tell you that now that Mr. Sinwar is dead, the day after we’re back at the table — we aren’t right now.
What I would also add, though, is that we are — we have never stopped having conversations with our counterparts in Qatar and Egypt about the possibility of getting something started and that those conversations are continuing.
Q Could I ask one last question? How does the President view his impact on transatlantic relations now with the last few —
MR. KIRBY: The President is enormously proud of what his administration and his team has been able to do over the last three and a half years to improve transatlantic cooperation, transatlantic security, the transatlantic relationships.
I mean, NATO is now two countries bigger than it was when he took office. And it’s not just bigger. NATO is more unified, more resolved, more cooperative than it’s ever been. You heard President Steinmeier say the same thing today.
So, there’s been an enormous impact on transatlantic security, and obviously a lot of this has been in response to what Mr. Putin decided to do in February of 2022. But everything he wanted to do, he has failed to do. He did not fracture the West. He did not fracture NATO. He did not take Kyiv in Ukraine.
And as President Steinmeier said today, a large part of that is President Biden’s personal leadership, his hand on the tiller of these relationships.
He has believed his whole public life, and he certainly has believed as President, that while America is in many ways the most essential nation, we are not the only nation, and that we need alliances and partnerships to deal with these challenges, and that means being able to work cooperatively and collaboratively with other nations, hearing them out, listening to their perspectives, because that’s important.
AIDE: All right, we’ll go to Nick Schifrin from PBS virtually. Nick, you should be able to unmute yourself.
Q Thanks, Jess. Thanks, John. Sorry I couldn’t be there with you guys. Apologies in advance if my one-year-old interrupts my question.
But two parts on Gaza. As you’ve been pointing out, there hasn’t been movement on a ceasefire, not that you guys haven’t been working on it. Is there an assessment yet that Hamas might choose a leader who can even make a decision about a ceasefire going forward, whether they can choose a leader in the near future?
And then, there’s always been a second pathway in terms of getting to the day after for Gaza, which is working with Arab partners across the region and creating some kind of security package and (inaudible) transition to governance. Can you guys make that progress regardless of what Hamas does? Is that possible? Thanks.
MR. KIRBY: Well, on your second question, I mean, we obviously hope to. It’s not by happenstance that the President mentioned day-after planning and efforts in his statement last night. That is something that he has tasked Secretary Blinken to really take the lead on, and Secretary Blinken and his team are working on that very hard. We still believe that even while the war goes on, we’ve got to make sure we’re ready for that day after so that Gaza cannot be governed by Hamas but can be governed by authorities, institutions that are answerable to the Palestinians who live there and not to a terrorist organization.
So we still very much believe in the possibilities there, and Secretary Blinken is working that hard, including with, and even especially with, our Arab partners.
On your first question, it’s, I think, just too soon for us to be able to know, Nick, how Hamas is going to — from a leadership perspective, how they’re going to respond to this, who they might anoint as Sinwar’s successor, and what that individual may be willing to pursue one way or the other, for good or for ill. It’s just too soon for us to know. And I’m not aware of — I’m certainly not privy to any intelligence assessments at this early hour that would give us insight into that.
Q And, sorry, just a quick follow-up. Is there a version of progress on a transitional security structure in Gaza that would be despite a lack of hostage release? Could you have progress on that without a deal to end the war and release the hostages?
MR. KIRBY: I would refer you to the State Department for that one. I mean, they’re really working this a lot harder than — well, they’re working it very, very hard. I just don’t have the insights on everything that they’re doing. I would — but — so it doesn’t sound like I’m just brushing you off.
As I said earlier, the killing of Sinwar underscores the keen sense of urgency that we still have and must have to get a ceasefire deal in place to get those hostages home. That is the President’s primary concern right now, is making sure we get them home, that we can get a surge of humanitarian assistance in, that we get that ceasefire in place. That’s where his head space is. Not that it’s not on the day after. Of course, he’s concerned about that as well, and he’s following Secretary Blinken’s efforts. But his main focus right now is on getting that ceasefire deal and getting the hostages home.
AIDE: Thanks, Nick. And then for our last question, we’ll go to Tom Bateman for BBC. Tom, you should be able to unmute yourself.
Tom, are you there?
Q Can you hear me?
AIDE: Now we can.
Q Can you hear me?
AIDE: Yep.
Q Okay. Thanks, Kirby. I just wanted to ask you about the dynamics of negotiation now, because, clearly, Netanyahu is in a strengthened position. Hamas are in a weakened position. And it felt to me as though the Israeli Prime Minister was redrawing some of his conditions yesterday because he said that Hamas fighters who are holding hostages, you know, could release hostages and get away with their lives. That’s quite a different exchange than the ceasefire deal suggests.
And I just wonder if you think now — you talked a little bit about if the negotiations start up again, where you start from — but presumably, he would want to very much change the conditions now. And I just wonder what your assessment of what’s on the table now, the chances of that still carrying through, what your assessment is of that.
MR. KIRBY: Well, with the caveat that I won’t speak for the Prime Minister, I don’t know that his comments yesterday necessarily connote a move on the goal post when it comes to getting the hostages home. I mean, he’s absolutely right — as was the case two days ago, so is the case today: that Hamas could simply release all the hostages right now, do the right thing and let them go.
And as the Prime Minister said before — you know, that would dramatically hasten an end to the conflict if they just did the right thing and let them go. They shouldn’t be held in the first place.
So the way we read that is he was restating what he has said many times before. We obviously don’t see any sign that that’s going to happen. Now, again, we’ll see what Hamas does and how they react to Sinwar’s killing. But no signs, as you and I are speaking right now, that that’s in the offing, which is why the President made it clear last night on a couple of occasions, and again today, that this moment of justice also provides us a moment of opportunity to see what we can do to get those hostages home and also to get a surge of humanitarian assistance in to the people of Gaza who so desperately need it.
AIDE: All right, that’s all the —
Q Can I just ask one more quick one? Sorry. Given the threats on former President Trump’s life and his campaign requesting military planes, do you know if that request is actively under consideration, or is that being ruled out? I know that Jake told us yesterday that the President tasked you guys with actually responding to any intel you get on, you know, threats on —
MR. KIRBY: Yes, of course we will respond to any intelligence and do it appropriately and collaboratively with the campaigns, as we must.
I am not going to get into the specifics of requests that may or may not be coming in, and I’m certainly not going to talk about the specifics of force protection or, in this case, protection given to former President Trump. I mean, that wouldn’t be appropriate for me to do.
All I can assure you is that the guidance by the President is to make sure that we are being as responsive as we humanly can to the security needs of the of both candidates and, in this case, obviously former President Trump. We’re having regular conversations with him and his team about what those needs are, and doing everything we can — everything we can to be responsive to those needs.
Q Is there any frustration on your end that this is sort of being politicized by his team that you’re not doing enough?
MR. KIRBY: I have the advantage of not having to get into politics one way or another, so I’m going to just — I’m just going to let that one go.
All right. Thanks, everybody. Appreciate it.
9:21 A.M. EDT
