President Biden insisted Wednesday that his administration is working hard to bring home Americans being held hostage by Hamas, but he can’t speak publicly about what they’re doing.
“I want to make it real clear, we’re working on every aspect of the hostage crisis in Israel, including deploying experts to advise and assist with recovery efforts,” Mr. Biden said. “Now the press is going to shout to me — and any of you are — ‘What are you doing to get these folks home?’ If I told you, I wouldn’t be able to get them home.”
“Folks, there is a lot we’re doing,” the president said. “I have not given up hope of bringing these folks home. But the idea that I’m going to stand here before you and tell you what I’m doing is bizarre. So I hope you understand how bizarre I think it would be for me to answer that question.”
Mr. Biden’s remarks came during a roundtable with Jewish community leaders at the White House to discuss his administration’s support for Israel amid its war with Hamas.
The president was not initially scheduled to attend the roundtable but decided to speak, both as an expression of support for Israel and to condemn anti-semitism both home and abroad.
In addition to Mr. Biden, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff spoke at the event, which was attended by several Jewish community leaders.
Mr. Biden’s remarks defending his administration’s efforts to rescue U.S. hostages came hours after the White House admitted it doesn’t know how many hostages are being held, their whereabouts, or their condition.
White House spokesman John Kirby told reporters that there are a “very small number of Americans being held hostage by Hamas. Mr. Kirby said the administration is aware of 17 Americans who are unaccounted for, but it’s not clear how many of them are being held hostage.
“Of the 17 that we know are missing, right now — and again, this is going to change — right now we think that number that we know, or we believe are held hostage is very small, very small, like less than a handful but that could change over time,” Mr. Kirby said.
He added that the administration doesn’t have “a lot of granularity” on the hostages or whether or not they’ve been moved. He declined to offer specifics about what the administration is doing to bring hostages home.
“We’re obviously talking to the Israelis about what they might know. They’re on the ground and they’ve unfortunately had to deal with this sort of scenario before. They’ve been tremendously forthcoming with the information that they have,” he said, adding that a “wide net” has been cast in the Middle East to locate the hostages.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.