NPR’s Kelemen: Biden Admin. Looks Like It’s Leveraging Trump’s Rhetoric to Get Ceasefire

On Monday’s broadcast of NPR’s “All Things Considered,” NPR Diplomatic Correspondent Michele Kelemen stated that it “seems like the Biden administration is trying to kind of leverage” President-Elect Donald Trump’s vow to end the wars in the Middle East “to get a ceasefire done now” in Lebanon, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu might want to “wait until January to give Trump credit for a deal.”

Co-host Ari Shapiro asked, [relevant exchange begins around 2:45] “The Biden administration, of course, is only in office until January 20. Does that lame duck quality make a difference in these talks?”

Kelemen responded, “President-Elect Trump has said that he will end the wars in the Middle East. It seems like the Biden administration is trying to kind of leverage that idea to get a ceasefire done now. It’s not clear, though, that the Israeli Prime Minister will want to do this now or wait until January to give Trump credit for a deal. We’ll have to see what his Cabinet decides tomorrow.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.