White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked during her daily press briefing on Tuesday whether President Joe Biden believes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The question was posed by James Rosen, Chief White House Correspondent for Newsmax.
“Look, what I can tell you again, as you just stated, they have a long-standing relationship, they speak candidly with each other,” she replied.
“They just spoke last week with each other…I’m not going to get into specifics about their relationship. I just laid out how long they’ve known each other. Again, they had a candid conversation to discuss their shared interests as well as their concerns, and that will continue,” added Jean-Pierre.
Rosen then said, "The record will reflect that you were unwilling to say that the President trusts Prime Minister Netanyahu." He then moved on to his next question.
The exchange between Rosen and Jean-Pierre follows recent US criticism of Israel’s judicial reform and perceived tensions between Biden and Netanyahu.
On Monday, Jean-Pierre published a statement in which she said the US expressed disappointment over the fact that the first phase of the judicial reform passed in the Knesset without a broad consensus.
“As a lifelong friend of Israel, President Biden has publicly and privately expressed his views that major changes in a democracy to be enduring must have as broad a consensus as possible. It is unfortunate that the vote today took place with the slimmest possible majority,” said Jean-Pierre.
“We understand talks are ongoing and likely to continue over the coming weeks and months to forge a broader compromise even with the Knesset in recess. The United States will continue to support the efforts of President Herzog and other Israeli leaders as they seek to build a broader consensus through political dialogue,” she added.
On Sunday, before the vote in the Knesset, Biden called on Netanyahu not to move forward with the planned vote.
From the perspective of Israel’s friends in the United States, “it looks like the current judicial reform proposal is becoming more divisive, not less," Biden said in a statement to Axios’ Barak Ravid.
“Given the range of threats and challenges confronting Israel right now, it doesn’t make sense for Israeli leaders to rush this — the focus should be on pulling people together and finding consensus," the President added.
Last week, Biden held a telephone conversation with Netanyahu. After that conversation, senior analyst Thomas Friedman published an opinion article in The New York Times, in which he wrote that Biden implored Netanyahu not to advance the legislation of the judicial reform without even the semblance of a national consensus.
According to Friedman, he was invited by the President to the Oval Office to "make sure that Biden’s position is crystal clear to all Israelis."
On Thursday, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby spoke to Israel's Channel 12 News and was asked about Friedman’s column.
Kirby refused to answer whether Friedman's assertion that Biden had asked Netanyahu to stop the judicial reform legislation altogether is accurate, though he added that the column was an accurate reflection of "where the President's head is."