The White House News

Actor and comedian John Leguizamo roasted Univision’s recent interview with former President Trump on Tuesday.

“I don’t know what’s more shocking, that Univision gave Trump a softball interview, or that Trump let a Latin guy into his house,” Leguizamo said on “The Daily Show.” 

In the early November interview, Trump was asked questions about his support among Latin American voters, suggested he would use the government to investigate political opponents, and defended his administration’s family separation policy at the southern border.

“When you hear that you’re going to be separated from your family, you don’t come,” Trump said in the Univision interview. “When you think you’re going to come into the United States with your family, you come. And we did for a period of time family separation, and others have, too, by the way.”

Leguizamo heavily criticized what he said was a failure on the part of Univision to its Latino audience to “to fully report what a second Trump presidency could mean for them.” 

“And the truth is, is that that s‑‑‑ is mad [scary],” Leguizamo continued. 

The New York Times has recently reported that the former president has expansive plans for cracking down on immigration in his second term. These plans reportedly include mass deportations and large new detainment camps. 

“President Trump and his campaign are singularly focused on beating Joe Biden and achieving victory next November,” Trump campaign adviser Chris LaCivita said in response to reporting by the Times and The Washington Post on second-term plans for Trump. “While we understand fully the value of planning a transition back to the Oval Office, these press reports are largely unfounded and an unnecessary distraction from the work we are doing to defeat the most corrupt and incompetent president in what is the most consequential election in the history of our country.”

President Biden conceded to critics within his party on Friday that calls to put specific conditions on aid to Israel are a “worthwhile thought,” amid the country’s war against Hamas in Gaza.

But at a press conference marking a four-day truce in the war to free 50 Hamas hostages, Biden also implied that those conditions could hamper diplomacy.

“I think that’s a worthwhile thought, but I don’t think if I started off with that we ever would have gotten to where we are today,” Biden said. “We have to take this a piece at a time.”

The president has been under immense pressure from a growing group of Democrats who have criticized the Biden administration for strongly backing Israel in the conflict, despite a growing number of civilian casualties in Gaza.

“The blank check approach must end,” Sen Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) wrote in a New York Times op-ed published Wednesday. “The United States must make clear that while we are friends of Israel, there are conditions to that friendship and that we cannot be complicit in actions that violate international law and our own sense of decency.”

The war in Gaza has killed over 12,000 Palestinians, including over 4,600 children, since it began early last month, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Biden said he has repeatedly pressured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to better consider the lives and wellbeing of Gazan civilians.

“I’ve encouraged the Prime Minister to focus on trying to reduce the number of casualties while he is attempting to eliminate Hamas, which is the legitimate objective use,” Biden said. “That’s a difficult task.”

“And I don’t know how long it will take,” he continued. “My expectation and hope is that as we move forward, the rest of the Arab world and the region is also putting pressure on all sides to slow this down to bring this to an end as quickly as possible.”

Progressive Democrats have pushed the Biden administration to call for a long-term cease-fire in the conflict, arguing that the Israeli military strategy puts too many Palestinian civilians at risk. They have been joined by hundreds of former Biden campaign staffers and have sparked division in the State Department.

In his op-ed this week, Sanders described the Israeli strategy as one of “indiscriminate bombing.”

“The Netanyahu government, or hopefully a new Israeli government, must understand that not one penny will be coming to Israel from the U.S. unless there is a fundamental change in their military and political positions,” Sanders said in the statement.

The U.S. already requires that all counties which receive military aid, by law, abide by international law. The progressives argue that the measure has entirely been ignored in the case of Israel.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said the U.S. applies conditions for “virtually all other … allies,” and doing so for Israel is “the responsible course.”

“The United States has a legal and moral responsibility to ensure that public resources do not facilitate gross violations of human rights and international law,” she wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

President Biden said he believes Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel was inspired by progressing diplomacy in the region, especially with Saudi Arabia, spurred on by his administration.

In a press conference Friday falling on the beginning of a four-day truce in the conflict to release 50 hostages held by Hamas, Biden remarked on one of his theories for why Hamas began the conflict.

“I cannot prove what I’m about to say,” Biden said. “But I believe one of the reasons why Hamas struck when they did was they knew that I was working very closely with the Saudis and others in the region to bring peace to the region by having recognition of Israel and Israel’s right to exist.”

The Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7 after Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people in border communities, sparking weeks of deadly air strikes and an Israeli ground campaign in Gaza which have killed thousands of Palestinians.

Diplomacy between Saudi Arabia and Israel has significantly warmed in recent years, with the U.S. working toward normalizing relations between the two countries. Biden suggested that the Saudis were about to officially recognize the statehood of Israel, a major breakthrough in regional diplomacy, just before the attack.

He previously made the connection at a campaign fundraiser last month.

On Friday, Biden specifically pointed to his administration’s work at this year’s G20 Summit planning a massive rail project connecting India to Europe via the Middle East. The project included Israel, the UAE, Jordan and Saudi Arabia among other partners.

“The whole idea there’s overwhelming interest, and I think most Arab nations know that and are coordinating with one another to change the dynamic in their region for longer term peace,” Biden said. “And that is what I’m going to continue to work on.”

President Biden said Friday that he expects Americans to be among dozens of hostages released by Hamas in Gaza this week during a truce deal in the Israel-Hamas war.

At a press conference Friday, Biden said he could not confirm the health status of the approximately 10 Americans believed to be held hostage by Hamas, but that he “expects” some of them to be among the 50 hostages planned to be released in the coming days.

“We don’t know when that will occur, but we expect it to occur,” Biden said on the release of American hostages.

The truce deal, announced Wednesday, began early Friday as 12 Thai and 13 Israeli hostages were released by Hamas. As part of the deal, 39 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel were released to the West Bank.

No Americans were among the first wave of released hostages.

A total of 50 hostages are expected to be released over four days, with fighting between Israel and Hamas on pause. Biden said he is “hopeful” that the four-day truce will be extended and more hostages will be released.

“That’s our goal,” Biden said of an extension to the deal.

He celebrated the deal Friday as a triumph of diplomacy between the U.S., Qatar, Israel and Hamas, as well as other regional powers.

“Today has been a product of a lot of hard work and weeks of personal engagement,” Biden said. “The moment Hamas kidnapped these people, I along with my team, have worked around the clock to secure their release.”

“All of these hostages have been through a terrible ordeal, and this is the beginning of a long journey of healing for them,” he continued. “The teddy bears waiting to greet those children at the hospital are a stark reminder of the trauma these children have been through and such a very young age. Jill and I and our children with me are keeping them all in our prayers.”

The hostage deal was a culmination of weeks of negotiations involving the White House and foreign governments. It is also expected to advance humanitarian aid in Gaza, which Biden said is a priority of his administration.

“Note, this extended pause in the fighting brings a critical opportunity to deliver much needed food, medicine, water and fuel to the civilians in Gaza,” he said. “And we are not wasting one single minute.”

Biden said that more than 200 trucks filled with humanitarian aid arrived at the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt on Friday, including trucks with critical fuel supplies. The enclave ran out of fuel last week, plunging hospitals into darkness and threatening the water supply.

“And hundreds more trucks are getting in position as well, ready to enter Gaza over the coming days to support the innocent Palestinians who are suffering greatly because of this war that Hamas has unleashed,” Biden continued. “Hamas doesn’t give a damn about them.”

The president also reiterated his administration’s support for a two-state solution in Israel and an independent Palestinian government in Gaza, free from Hamas. Israeli leaders have denounced such plans in recent weeks, despite pressure from the Biden administration.

“As we look to the future, we have to end the cycle of violence in the Middle East,” Biden said. “We need to renew our resolve to pursue this two-state solution where Israelis and Palestinians can one day live side-by-side in a two-state solution with equal measures of freedom and dignity.”