VP Harris pushing Biden to sharpen rhetoric on Gaza humanitarian crisis — report

The New York Times reports that US Vice President Kamala Harris has been pushing President Joe Biden and other senior administration figures to speak out about the humanitarian plight of Gazans.

The report, citing four people familiar with Harris’s urgings, says she has repeatedly told Biden and others in the White House “that the administration must show more empathy for Palestinian civilians by speaking publicly about the high death toll in Gaza and the plight of survivors.”

Biden has backed Harris’s position, according to the Times, while also saying officials should continue to condemn Hamas’s October 7 attacks.

Harris accused Israel of not doing enough to ease the “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza in a speech on Sunday that marked a shift in the administration’s rhetoric. She met with war cabinet minister Benny Gantz in Washington on Monday.

According to the paper, Harris’s comments were meant to address complaints from Democrats who oppose US support for Israel in its war against Hamas and to burnish the vice president’s foreign policy credentials to make clear she is a viable replacement for the president if needed.