GOP senator slams ‘lame duck Joe Biden’ hostage deal that Trump envoy is working to finalize

By Jacob Magid

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15 January 2025, 4:31 pm

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Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief

Sen. Tom Cotton, Republican-Arkansas, speaks during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the conclusion of military operations in Afghanistan and plans for future counterterrorism operations, on Capitol Hill in Washington, September 28, 2021. (Patrick Semansky/AP)

Republican Sen. Tom Cotton blasts the brewing hostage deal between Israel and Hamas, claiming that outgoing US President Joe Biden is trying to force Israel into signing it, even though President-elect Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff is in Qatar working with the parties in order to secure the agreement that the hawkish lawmaker is criticizing.

“Why is lame duck Joe Biden trying to cram down a bad deal on Israel on his way out the door?” Cotton tweets.

“The only ‘deal’ should be unconditional surrender by Hamas—which is already nearly destroyed—and return of ALL hostages. Instead, we hear reports that Biden is demanding that Israel withdraw from key terrain in Gaza, release dozens of hardened terrorists for every one hostage, and get back only SOME hostages?”

It was Witkoff, not a Biden official, who flew to Israel on Saturday and pressured Netanyahu to accept the compromises necessary for a deal, two officials familiar told The Times of Israel earlier this week.

“Here’s the deal’ to offer Hamas and its patron, Iran: you have five days to release ALL the hostages or we ‘unleash hell,'” Cotton adds, referring to the threat Trump has made to Hamas if the hostages aren’t released by January 20.