Biden interviewed in classified documents probe

President Joe Biden has been interviewed by the special counsel team investigating how classified documents from his time as vice president ended up at his office and home, the White House said Monday night.

The interview was conducted at the White House on Sunday and Monday and was done voluntarily, the administration added.

“As we have said from the beginning, the President and the White House are cooperating with this investigation, and as it has been appropriate, we have provided relevant updates publicly, being as transparent as we can consistent with protecting and preserving the integrity of the investigation,” Ian Sams, spokesperson for the White House, said in a statement.

Interviews of this magnitude with the focus of the investigation would typically signal the inquiry is close to the end. The investigation began last year after documents were found by the president’s attorneys in an office he used after he’d left the Obama administration and before he ran for president.

Biden’s lawyers say they notified the National Archives and Records Administration immediately and handed the documents over.

More documents were later found in the president’s home in Delaware, prompting Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint Robert Hur as special counsel in January to look into the matter. The probe into Biden has taken place almost completely in secret — a stark contrast from the investigation into documents kept by Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, which has played out with very public spats over executive privilege. And unlike Biden, Trump declined to be interviewed by special counsel Jack Smith, a decision that preceded the former president’s indictment on charges stemming from his bid to subvert the 2020 election.

The FBI also conducted searches of the Biden vacation home in Rehoboth, Del., where “some materials and handwritten notes,” were found that appeared to also date back to Biden’s time as vice president, the president’s lawyer Bob Bauer said at the time.

A spokesperson for Hur declined to comment on Biden’s questioning.

While it's rare for criminal investigators to interview sitting presidents, many other recent leaders have sat down with prosecutors conducting sensitive inquiries.

In 2008, then President-elect Barack Obama was interviewed by federal prosecutors and the FBI as part of a probe into efforts by Democratic Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to sell the Senate seat Obama was vacating.

Former President George W. Bush was interviewed in 2004 as part of an investigation into the leaked identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame.

And Bill Clinton was also questioned in several inquiries, most famously in contentious videotaped testimony to a grand jury investigating his statements about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky.

Kyle Cheney contributed to this report.

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Bibi’s Big Chance

Hamas’ assault on Israel has reanimated a proposal Israelis have loudly whispered about for weeks: that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would rid the government of religious Zionist parties in favor of a centrist coalition that includes liberals — former prime minister Yair Lapid (of Yesh Atid) and ex-defense minister Benny Gantz (of National Unity).

Besides bettering Jerusalem’s relations with the Biden administration, a centrist coalition led by Netanyahu’s Likud would help the embattled prime minister prosecute the war against Hamas, restore domestic comity and secure peace with Saudi Arabia. Israel’s worst security crisis in years gives Netanyahu the chance to make valuable friends at home and abroad — and to secure his legacy as the most important Jewish leader since Israel’s founding.

If Netanyahu forms a government with his erstwhile liberal opponents, it would benefit him as well as Israel’s unity, security and international standing.

The pre-war basis for hopes of a unity government was that a possible peace deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia required concessions to the West Bank’s Palestinian Authority that Netanyahu’s current coalition partners would not accept. Possibly, the Saudis would ask Israel to transfer land, autonomy or money to the Palestinian Authority. Or Washington Democrats — disliking Saudi Arabia and favoring peace between Israel and the Palestinian Authority — would exact Israeli concessions in return for approving a U.S.-Saudi defense pact. Whoever made the pro-Palestinian demands on Israel, they stood a good chance of refusal by the religious Zionist parties led by ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir. Preferring peace with the Saudis to a right-wing government, Netanyahu — the thought went — would ditch the religious Zionists in favor of liberal parties now in opposition.

This past Friday, a national unity government looked fanciful. The Netanyahu government’s campaign for judicial reform has caused the largest street protests in Israel’s history and drawn unusual hostility from Washington. Israel’s liberal parties haven’t won a national election for two decades and might prefer the wily Netanyahu’s downfall to saving his peace deal with the Saudis. On the other side: However much Smotrich and Ben Gvir want Israel not to reduce its hold on the West Bank (where their supporters mostly live), they might prefer cooperating with smaller concessions to the Palestinians to witnessing greater ones from the opposition.

The bloodiest day in Israel in 50 years has turned what seemed like wishcasting into a real prospect. The four Jewish parties not sitting in government issued a unifying statement: “In days like these there is no opposition and no coalition in Israel.” The party led by Gantz, a former Netanyahu defense minister, declared openness to a new coalition focused on security issues. Similarly, Lapid, whose party has 24 seats (Gantz’s has 12) in the 120-seat Knesset said he would join a “reduced, professional, emergency government” as long as it didn’t include the current one’s “extreme and dysfunctional” members — a reference to Smotrich and Ben Gvir, both of whom vehemently support judicial reform.

The judicial reform push, however justified in its broad intent, has been a political disaster for Netanyahu. Many Israelis, including liberal ones, favor some reforms to Israel’s High Court. The High Court has assumed for itself a power of judicial review (though Israel has no formally ratified constitution), has abolished limits on who can bring lawsuits, and has made itself the court of original jurisdiction for cases challenging government policy decisions. Netanyahu made the mistake of outsourcing the reform effort to two irascible members of his coalition — Simcha Rothman and Yariv Levin — and then, when public dissension got bad enough last spring, pressed pause. One piece of the reform, depriving the High Court of the power to overturn ministerial actions for being “unreasonable,” subsequently passed. Netanyahu recently said reform efforts would continue and then stop with altering the justice selection committee — mostly composed of justices themselves and unelected bar association members — but the government and an important goal incurred serious reputational damage.

Although Netanyahu, Smotrich, and Ben Gvir are all, in a sense, right-wing politicians, differences on substance and tone divide them. While Netanyahu has defended existing Israeli security arrangements in the West Bank and the settlements they protect, he has been reluctant to expand the settlements — a priority for Smotrich and Ben Gvir. Netanyahu favors some kind of judicial reform, but for a decade led the country without it. For their part, Smotrich and Ben Gvir are troublesome allies for Netanyahu, often giving tacit (and sometimes explicit) support to anti-Arab thuggery. Lapid and Gantz do not differ seriously from Netanyahu on the latter’s most important aim — to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. There is no reason to believe either one would be an unreliable partner in a campaign against Hamas, and both are readier than Smotrich and Ben Gvir to make concessions to the Palestinian Authority to secure a Saudi peace deal. Netanyahu might even persuade Gantz and Lapid to consent to a more limited, and more durable, reform of the justice selection committee and the High Court’s powers.

Numerous military risks will be easier for Netanyahu to take if his erstwhile opponents join a new coalition. The prime minister said Saturday evening that Israel will reduce all of Hamas’ bases of operations to “islands of ruin,” and urged Gazan civilians to evacuate. Previous anti-Hamas strikes were largely airborne attempts to degrade Hamas’ missile-launching capabilities while leaving the group intact — this time, Israel may try to destroy Hamas itself. That will take a while, it will almost certainly require a large ground invasion, and it may cost hundreds of Israeli lives. A broad coalition will reduce Netanyahu’s electoral worries should the military campaign go awry or get stuck, since those who would otherwise gain at his expense will share responsibility.

The strategic gains for Netanyahu from a unity government extend beyond who’s in the cabinet. Many Israelis saw the judicial reform as an attempt to specifically disempower liberals. Whatever the merit of that belief, it was strong enough to motivate many Israeli army reservists — including air force pilots — to threaten not to serve. Including liberal leaders in the coalition will help restore to health a crucial part of the Israeli body politic.

Arab participation in the government would be especially valuable, depriving Hamas of its claim to lead a cause of Arabs worldwide. Mansour Abbas, Israel’s most prominent Arab politician, has rebuked Hamas’ call for a general Arab uprising, and specifically urged Arab citizens of Israel to remain peaceful. The attack by Hamas seems to be aimed at thwarting a Saudi-Israeli rapprochement — by provoking the Israelis into an inhumane response, and by encouraging Arab Israelis to rebel against the Israeli government. A deal between Riyadh and Jerusalem would mean that the Arab-Israeli conflict had been abandoned by the most important Arab state. Hamas, whose founding motive was the elimination of Israel, would be left together with Lebanon’s Hezbollah as a ward of Iran, both a pariah state and the most fearsome enemy of the Gulf Arab monarchies.

An Israeli unity government may also relieve some diplomatic headaches for Netanyahu. The Hamas practice of using Palestinian civilians as human shields — including the notorious use of Gaza’s Shifa hospital as a base of operations — makes it impossible for even the most humane army to target militants without also killing civilians. In recent years, whatever support American and European governments offered for Israel’s anti-Hamas campaigns evaporated quickly. It will last longer if the urbane Lapid and former general Gantz are Netanyahu’s partners in executing and publicly defending Israeli strategy.

The final gain for a unity government concerns Iran. Unlike its Hamas proxy, Iran stands an outside chance of destroying Israel — if it acquires a nuclear weapon. Although the Biden administration’s initial efforts to resurrect the Iranian nuclear deal are currently on ice, they may be revived, either by the current president or by a successor. Israel’s clandestine attempts to eliminate the Iranian nuclear program may, in the end, not substitute for an overt attempt to destroy Iranian facilities. An American administration may find it easier to accept — and Netanyahu may more vigorously pursue — an Israeli attack on Iran if Israel’s government includes liberal parties.

The relationship between Washington and its most important Middle East ally has suffered in recent years. The Hamas attack provides the prime minister a chance for a reset. A unity government in Jerusalem, should Netanyahu form one, would strengthen both Israeli security and its alliance with Washington.

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Lawrence Summers, Ted Cruz criticize Harvard for student statement blaming Israel

Some of Harvard University’s most prominent political alumni are criticizing the school for not condemning a student-led statement that blamed Israel for the surprise Hamas attack over the weekend.

“The silence from Harvard’s leadership, so far, coupled with a vocal and widely reported student groups’ statement blaming Israel solely, has allowed Harvard to appear at best neutral towards acts of terror against the Jewish state of Israel,” Lawrence Summers, a former Harvard president and longtime Washington economic policy hand, wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “I am sickened. I cannot fathom the Administration’s failure to disassociate the University and condemn this statement.”

In their comments, prominent figures who studied at the university — many of them Republicans — blasted the school for not standing up for Israel. The story made the rounds on Sunday and Monday across a plethora of mostly conservative news sites, picking up the attention of Washington figures like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.)

“What the hell is wrong with Harvard?” Cruz, who attended Harvard Law School, wrote Monday on X.

Stefanik, the House Republican Conference Chair, wrote Sunday night on X: “It is abhorrent and heinous that Harvard student groups are blaming Israel for Hamas’ barbaric terrorist attacks that have killed over 700 Israelis.”

So far, the university administration has remained mum on the outpouring of criticism, which Summers contrasted with its clear support of Ukraine when Russia invaded the country. The students originally wrote in a Saturday statement that the Hamas-led attack “did not occur in a vacuum” and that Israel was “entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.”

“In the coming days, Palestinians will be forced to bear the full brunt of Israel’s violence,” the students wrote.

A review of the statement shows that most of the 35 student organizations signing the letter are identity-based groups or caucuses — and several of them, in name, expressly support the rights of Palestinian people. Activist student groups that support Palestinians are common across the country, and they often lead demonstrations and protests critical of Israel on campuses.

The development could represent an early challenge for Claudine Gay, who recently became Harvard’s president this summer. The university has often been the target of conservative criticism that higher education panders to elites and teaches liberal viewpoints, and it was the main target of the Supreme Court case that toppled affirmative action in June.

The university did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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At Trump’s N.H. rally: Whales, football, but not much on Israel

WOLFEBORO, N.H. — In a weekend filled with politicians offering criticisms and condemnations over the state of the world, Donald Trump on Monday had a few.

For the Wall Street Journal editorial page (“globalists”), for windmills (“we see whales washing up on shore”); for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (“He’s fallen like a wounded bird from the skies”) and his indictments (“a great badge of honor”); for transgender athletes (“Have you seen the weightlifting records?”) and even for one of the region’s most cherished institutions: the New England Patriots (“not a good game” Sunday).

The attack on Israel may have been consuming much of official Washington. But in the small auditorium in a performing arts center in Wolfeboro, N.H., where Trump rallied his base of voters on Monday, it was not topic one, two or even 13.

In all, it took Trump over an hour to spend any significant amount of time discussing the fighting that erupted in the Middle East following the murder of an estimated 900 Israelis. Reading from a teleprompter, Trump blamed President Joe Biden for “tossing Israel to the bloodthirsty terrorists,” for reengaging diplomatically with Iran and for not doing enough to support Israel’s president, Benjamin Netanyahu.

“Less than four years ago, we had peace in the Middle East,” Trump said. “Today we have an all-out war in Israel and it’s gonna spread quickly. What a difference a president makes. Isn’t it amazing?”

After claiming that Hamas may be infiltrating the U.S.-Mexico border and suggesting, also without evidence, that the group could launch a domestic attack, he reverted back to familiar themes: obliterating the Deep State, attacking Hillary Clinton and preventing World War III.

Trump has never been one to stick to script or to refashion his speeches because of the news of the day. But his riff on Monday suggested he had scant organic interest in the events in Israel and saw little upside in making it part of the primary.

On the latter, he doesn’t appear to be alone. The prospect of a broader war between Hamas militants and Israel could have significant repercussions in the general election, serving as a gauge of Biden’s management of conflict abroad. But in a Republican primary buffeted by an unusual amount of foreign policy — from concerns about China and Ukraine to, now, Israel — it so far appears unlikely to alter the trajectory of the race at all.

“If we’re not at war – at least not directly, troops not committed and that type of thing – it’s not as big an issue,” said Wayne MacDonald, a New Hampshire lawmaker and past state Republican Party chair who supports former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. “Guns and butter, so to speak.”

Immediately after the attack, it seemed possible that the crisis might become a wedge issue among the GOP candidates — deepening the rift between the party’s isolationist and more engagement-oriented strains of foreign policy. Former Vice President Mike Pence, campaigning in Iowa over the weekend, faulted “voices of appeasement like Donald Trump, Vivek Ramaswamy and Ron DeSantis that I believe have run contrary to the tradition in our party that America is the leader of the free world.”

But Pence, polling in single digits, was largely a voice in the wilderness. The rest of the Republican field highlighted the atrocities not to critique each other or demand a more internationalist foreign policy in general, but to attack the current administration.

Trump called Biden, the Democratic president, “weak.” He was “sleeping on the job,” DeSantis said. Christie criticized policies of “appeasement and isolationism,” but did so in a rebuke of Biden, not fellow Republicans. Even Haley, who broke before with Trump on foreign policy, on China and Ukraine, did little to create any distance on the issue with her rivals.

Instead, she drew a connection from Israel to the Southern border.

“I have been terribly worried about the fact that Iran has said the easiest way to get into America is through the southern border,” Haley said on NBC on Sunday. “We have an open border. People are coming through; they’re not being vetted.”

Haley and others have come out in recent days with specific policies that they believe the U.S. should adopt in the wake of the attacks. Haley called for actions including providing arms and intelligence to Israel and clamping down on Iran. DeSantis, among other things, called for cutting off “any and all types of foreign aid flowing to Hamas.”

And there are some Republicans who do see the attack on Israel as motivating for the party’s voters. Attendees at Trump’s rally expressed broad support for “our ally” Israel — and universal condemnation of Biden over Hamas’ attacks.

“The blood’s on Biden’s hands,” said Jill Hegner, a Gilford, N.H., Republican who’s “300 percent” with Trump and arrived at the performing arts center at 6:30 a.m. to beat the throngs of thousands of people hoping to snag one of the roughly 100 seats inside.

“Trump, we had no new wars, peace in the Middle East,” Hegner said. “The first thing that Biden did when he got into office was get rid of all of that. It’s unbelievable to me.”

Stephen Stepanek, Trump’s senior adviser in New Hampshire and a former state Republican Party chair, said in a brief interview that “the world was a lot safer when Donald Trump was president.” A yarmulke — a head covering worn by observant Jewish men — dotted the sea of red-and-white “Make America Great Again” baseball caps and “America First” hoodies.

And yet Trump’s supporters in New Hampshire — and GOP voters more broadly — remain more concerned about problems at home than abroad.

When Gallup asks Americans what the most important problem facing the country is today, foreign policy barely registers. Republicans are far more concerned about domestic issues like inflation and immigration — both of which Trump played into on Monday, and both of which elicited far more cheers than talk of trouble abroad.

People leapt to their feet when Trump called to “stop child sexual mutilation” and dismantle the Department of Education. They whipped out their phones not to record Trump’s remarks on the state of the world but to capture his dramatic reading of a poem called “The Snake.” He won applause for talking about how he reopened waters off New England’s coastline for lobstering and was greeted with silence when he said Biden “betrayed” Israel’s leader Netanyahu.

And even as they said America should support Israel, voter after voter who came to hear Trump in New Hampshire decried the United States’ continued financial support of another country locked in a bloody battle: Ukraine.

Dave Urban, a Republican operative and former Trump adviser, described the attack on Israel as a “very fluid dynamic situation which is very sensitive on many fronts,” and suggested there wasn’t much more that Trump could say on the subject.

“He’s already put out his statement,” Urban said. “In his case he’s like, ‘I moved the embassy. I’m the most pro-Israel president we’ve ever had.’ … What’s he going to say that’s going to be politically useful?”

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EU halts Palestinian funding following Hamas attack

EU foreign ministers to hold emergency meeting on Israel crisis Tuesday.

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At least 130 Israelis held hostage in Gaza

A senior Hamas official said Sunday the militant group is holding more than 100 people captive after its unprecedented assault on Israel.

Mousa Abu Marzouk made the remarks to Arabic language news outlet al-Ghad on Sunday. The figure is in addition to more than 30 people said to be held by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group.

During their rampage through southern Israel, militants dragged back into Gaza dozens of captives, among them women, children and the elderly. Their precise number hadn’t been clear until the two militant groups made their announcements.

Those captives are in addition to at least 700 Israelis being killed. Included in that number are at least 260 bodies retrieved from a music festival attended by thousands that came under attack by Hamas. The total figure is expected to be higher as other paramedic teams were working in the area.

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At least 2 members of Congress were in Israel during attack

Both Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) were in Israel over the weekend while extremist group Hamas launched an unprecedented attack at the country’s border with Gaza. Both congressmen have since left the country, according to their offices.

Goldman was in Israel for a Bar Mitzvah with his wife and three of his children, his spokesperson, Simone Kanter, said. “Congressman Goldman and his family sheltered from Hamas rocket fire in their hotel’s interior stairwell until early Sunday morning, when they were able to safely depart for New York,” Kanter said in a statement.

Booker arrived in Israel on Friday, according to his office, ahead of a summit on the Abraham Accords at which he was scheduled to speak Tuesday.

“Senator Booker and accompanying staff were in Jerusalem when Hamas launched their attacks against Israel on Saturday, and sheltered in place for their safety,” spokesperson Maya Krishna-Rogers said in a statement. “We are grateful that Senator Booker and our colleagues were able to safely depart Israel earlier today.”

The Saturday morning assault blindsided Israeli forces, leaving hundreds dead, wounded and kidnapped, including civilians. Both congressmen took to social media to condemn Hamas’ actions and offer their support for Israel in the hours and days after the attack.

“At a minimum, Congress must replenish — and expand — the Iron Dome as soon as possible,” Goldman posted on X, formerly Twitter, early Sunday morning, referring to Israel's defense system against rockets. “I hope Republicans can get their House in order so we can pass emergency legislation to assist Israel in defending herself.”

“I emphatically condemn Hamas' horrific acts of violence, kidnapping and terror targeting Israeli families, children and other civilians in towns and cities across the nation of Israel,” Booker wrote. “I stand with the people of Israel and the families of those who have lost loved ones.”

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