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BIDEN ANNOUNCES ISRAEL-HAMAS CEASEFIRE: TRUMP IMMEDIATELY CLAIMS CREDIT FOR DEAL

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President Joe Biden announced that Israel and Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire deal which includes a hostage release. President-elect Donald Trump immediately claimed credit. On social media MAGA partisans began echoing Trump, calling the cease-fire a “humiliation” for Biden, who had outlined this kind of settlement months ago.

The argument from Trump world was that it was Trump’s vow to go after Hamas full-force that provided the impetus for the cease fire. Biden later was asked about whether history would say he got credit for the deal His reaction?

President Biden brushed off a question about who would get the credit for the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal struck Wednesday.

“Is that a joke?” Biden responded when asked by a reporter whether he or President-elect Trump would get credit for the deal, which could bring an end to the 15-month conflict in Gaza.

Trump publicly celebrated the news of the deal before an official statement from the White House was released hours later. The president-elect also claimed the credit for himself, saying a deal would not have happened without his victory in November over Vice President Harris.

While announcing the deal with Harris by his side, Biden acknowledged it will be implemented after he leaves office and said his team has been working with Trump’s incoming team. Trump is set to be sworn in Monday.

“I’d also note, this deal was developed and negotiated under my administration, but its terms will be implemented, for the most part, by the next administration. For these past few days, we’ve been speaking as one team,” the president said in remarks from the White House.

He also highlighted that the deal is the same framework of a deal his administration helped negotiate in May, and that Israel was able to weaken Hamas with the help of aid from the U.S.

Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post reported Biden’s comments in an article titled “Biden says Americans will be among Gaza hostages released, snarkily refuses to credit Trump in sealing deal: ‘Is that a joke?’

Retiring President Biden said Wednesday that US citizens will be among those released by Hamas as part of a Gaza Strip cease-fire deal with Israel — while refusing to give any credit to President-elect Donald Trump for escalating pressure on the terrorist group.

“I’m proud to say Americans will be part of that hostage release in phase one,” Biden, 82, said at the White House after Qatar’s government announced the agreement, in which hostages are expected to be released as early as Sunday.

[…]Biden credited his own administration and repeatedly refused to give any credit to Trump, 78, who had threatened “hell” for Hamas if it did not release the hostages by the time he took office on Monday.

Asked about the contribution of Trump’s envoys to sealing the agreement, Biden replied, “Well, you know, this is the exact framework of the deal I proposed back in May, the exact.”

When a reporter pressed whether Biden or Trump deserved credit, the president said, “Is that a joke? Oh —” before walking away.

Trump, whose Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff was heavily involved in the endgame of negotiations, claimed credit earlier Wednesday, saying it “could have only happened as a result of our Historic Victory in November.”

Ilan Goldenberg writing on The Contrarian:

As for who takes credit for this agreement—you’ll hear a lot of crowing from the right that this was somehow Trump who negotiated the deal. He does deserve some credit for applying public pressure and signaling his desire to end the war. The fact that both Trump’s representative and Biden’s were in Doha together was an exceptionally rare example of bipartisan cooperation on a seemingly impossible issue. But the Biden administration has worked tirelessly for the past fifteen months to bring about this deal.