President Joe Biden is not only negotiating with terrorists but has gone so far as to negotiate for them, according to Republican Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota, who slammed the 81-year-old Democrat for withholding crucial munitions from the U.S.’s “top ally” Israel in order to “get votes in November from the pro-Hamas part of the Democrat party.”
Burgum, a former Republican presidential candidate who is currently considered to be a possible Trump vice-presidential pick, criticized Biden for breaking U.S. protocol by effectively negotiating on behalf of terrorists, marking unprecedented presidential conduct, during an appearance on Fox News’s America’s Newsroom on Thursday.
“I think it’s truly unbelievable,” he said. “We’re in completely new territory here for a president of the United States because we’ve always had a rule, which is don’t negotiate with terrorists, but Joe Biden has gone way beyond that — he’s actually negotiating for the terrorists.”
As Breitbart News reported, several news outlets confirmed that the Biden administration is withholding 3,500 bombs from Israel, which is currently battling Hamas, a U.S.-designated Islamic terror group that attacked the Jewish state in October in an unprecedented and particularly brutal massacre.
In addition, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin confirmed at the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense on Wednesday that the U.S. is withholding a shipment of weapons from Israel over concerns about its ongoing attack on Hamas in Rafah — though the Jewish state’s security depends on disbanding Hamas’s remaining battalions there.
Subsequently, Biden confirmed on CNN’s Erin Burnett Out Front that he had begun to limit transfers of American weapons to Israel out of moral opposition to operations in Rafah.
“I’ve made it clear to Bibi [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] and the War Cabinet. They’re not going to get our support if, in fact, they go into these population centers,” he said, referring to those in Rafah. “We’re not walking away from Israel’s security. We’re walking away from Israel’s ability to wage war in those areas.”
“We’ve held up the weapons,” he added.
Burgum then criticized Biden for having “put a red line for Israel, for our ally.”
“When you think about that, think of every one of our allies around the world watching this and going, ‘Wow, Israel is supposed to be America’s top ally and the president is threatening them?’” he noted.
“How about Joe Biden saying we’re gonna keep providing weapons until you release the hostages, Hamas?” he suggested. “He should be negotiating alongside of Israel. He’s on the opposite side of the table.”
In contrast, the North Dakota governor insisted that if President Trump was currently in office, “this would not be happening because this is Joe Biden’s weakness on display like it was with Afghanistan — like it’s been around the world.”
Burgum concluded that Biden’s betrayal of a trusted ally is being perpetrated for one reason alone, that “he’s trying to get votes in November from the pro-Hamas part of the Democrat party.”
The North Dakota governor is currently being considered as a potential vice-presidential candidate for former President Donald Trump, according to a recent report, after having notably dropped out of the race in December and endorsed Trump on the eve of the Iowa Caucuses.
After Trump thumped his opponents in the caucuses, the 45th president said he would like to have the governor as a “very important” part of his administration.
In January, Breitbart News reported on the growing relationship between Trump and Burgum, and even noted some in Trump’s orbit were talking about him as a potential running mate or cabinet member if Trump were to win back the White House.
On Saturday, he appeared at Trump’s massive campaign rally in New Jersey, where he was prominently featured, enhancing his visibility as a top contender for the former president’s vice-presidential pick.
The matter comes as Republican officials continue to lambaste the Biden administration for withholding crucial ammunition from Israel in its war on the Hamas terror group, accusing the president of “carrying water for the pro-Hamas mob” to “appease his radical anti-Semitic base” and the Democrat party’s “pro-Hamas wing” for his own personal political gain.
On Thursday, former President Trump accused the “crooked” and “weak” commander-in-chief of “taking the side of these [Hamas] terrorists” just as he has “sided with the Radical Mobs taking over our college campuses.”
Critics of Biden’s decision have argued that withholding weapons that Congress has already authorized, absent any finding of human rights violations by Israel, is unconstitutional and violates the Impoundment Control Act of 1974.
Some Republicans have even drafted impeachment articles against the president, citing the abandonment of a key U.S. ally and a potential weakening of U.S. foreign policy stance.
Joshua Klein is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jklein@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.
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