The President's Daily Brief - March 11th, 2024: Rafah Red Line, Embassy Evacuation, & Biden Backs Down

Episode Date: March 11, 2024

In this episode of The President's Daily Brief: The Biden Administration is reportedly engaged in efforts to topple Israel’s coalition government, as it warns the nation’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that an assault on the Gaza city of Rafah is a red line that must not be crossed. We cover the escalating gang violence in Haiti, leading to the US State Department's drastic measure of evacuating embassy personnel from the country. The situation underscores the challenges facing international efforts to restore peace and stability. President Biden issues an apology for his choice of words in last week’s State of the Union Address, specifically his reference to the alleged perpetrator of a recent high-profile crime. In today’s Back of the Brief, we tackle the ongoing controversy surrounding TikTok in the United States. With the US House of Representatives pushing forward with legislation that could potentially ban the app, we examine the unique coalition of its defenders, including millions of vocal young users and former President Donald Trump.   To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com.    Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. Email: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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It's Monday, 11 March. Welcome to the President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker. Your eyes and here is on the world stage. Let's get briefed. We'll start things off in the Middle East, where the Biden administration is reportedly engaged in efforts to topple Israel's coalition government, as it warns the nation's Prime Minister Netanyahu that an assault on the Gaza city of Rafa is a red line that must not be crossed. Now, it's hard to tell how both sides are going to reconcile the Biden administration efforts to placate their pro-Palestinian leftist base in an election year with the Israelis' existential threat concern over the existence of the terrorist Hamas organization. Later in the show,

gang violence in the Caribbean nation of Haiti continues to spiral out of control with the U.S. State Department ordering an evacuation of embassy personnel amidst the bloodshed. Now, raise your hand if you imagined that the U.S. State Department would have already evacuated their embassy personnel. Plus, President Biden issues an apology for his choice of words in last week's state of the union address, specifically his reference to the alleged perpetrator of a recent high-profile crime. Apparently, he feels bad about calling the murderer of Lake and Riley an illegal instead of an undocumented visitor, or whatever the politically correct terminology is, for someone who has entered the U.S. illegally and proceeds to commit murder.

Finally, in today's back of the brief, the U.S. House of Representatives has advanced legislation that could lead to a ban on the popular video-sharing app TikTok. The only thing standing in their way, well, that would be millions of angry schoolkids and former President Donald Trump. But first, today's PDB spotlight. As White House unease over the impending assault on the Gaza city of Rafa continues, the struggle between President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu also continues to spill out into public view. Biden was caught in a hot mic after last week's state of the union address telling Colorado Senator Mike Bennett

that he told Netanyahu, quote, You and I are going to have a come-to-jesus moment. After an aide warned him that he was on a hot-year-old. Mike, Biden replied, that's good. Biden continued his offensive over the weekend, issuing a public warning to the Israeli government during an interview on MSNBC. Biden said that an Israeli attack on Rafa, where approximately one and a half million Palestinians remain trapped, would constitute crossing, in his words, quote, a red line. He also hinted that the U.S. would consider cutting back on certain forms of military aid to Israel should the attack result in more Palestinian

civilian casualties. Biden went on to call Israel's approach, quote, over the top, but added that he wouldn't cut off Israel entirely, making it clear that defensive weapons like Israel's Iron Dome would continue to be provided no matter what. Netanyahu responded to President Biden on Sunday. When asked about a potential Rafa invasion, he said it will go ahead as planned, with or without U.S. support. He added, quote, I have a red line. You know what that red line is. That October 7th doesn't happen again, end quote.

Netanyahu also went on to predict that the fighting in Gaza could end in as little as a month, claiming that the IDF has dismantled three quarters of Hamas's fighting capability. The back and forth between the two leaders is just the latest sign of a growing divide between in the U.S. and Israeli governments, largely caused by the mounting death toll amongst Gaza civilians and the Biden administration's concern that continued support for Israel will damage their poll numbers with Arab American and youth voters ahead of the November election. According to the Hamas control Gaza health ministry, civilian deaths exceed 30,000, and the U.N. continues to warn of famine in the Palestinian enclave. In addition to Biden's public attacks on Netanyahu, it's now being reported that his administration

is actively working behind the scenes to topple Israel's ruling coalition government. One Israeli expert frequently consulted by American officials told New Yorker magazine, quote, I have been asked by a serious administration figure what it is that will force the Netanyahu coalition to collapse. They were interested in the mechanics. what can we demand which will collapse his coalition, end quote. Now, it's interesting that the Biden administration might be viewing the toppling of the Israeli

government as more acceptable than accepting the plummeting poll numbers with some of their leftist base. As for the Rafa assault itself, Israel continues to delay its anticipated offensive, perhaps in hopes of still reaching a ceasefire deal that would see the release of Israeli hostages. IDF troops have been positioned on the outskirts of the city for weeks now, and there are no signs that an attack is on the way. The delay has led to an outcry from Israel's more conservative politicians who argue that Netanyahu's hesitance will likely lead to more IDF casualties once the attack moves ahead. All right, coming up next. Bodies are reportedly piling up on the streets as violence in Haiti continues to spiral out of control.

And President Biden offers an apology for referring to the alleged killer of Lake and Riley as, quote, illegal during his State of the Union address. Because, obviously, the last thing he would want to do is upset the sensibilities of someone who made their way into the country illegally and then proceeded to apparently beat a young woman to death in broad daylight. Yeah, that's the last person. that he'd want to insult. We'll highlight the story, and you can decide for yourself if American politics has actually turned the stupid dial up to a lemon.

I'll have those stories when we come back. Choice Hotels get you more of what you value. Comfort in. It's calling your name. Save on the stay. Oh, and free waffles are yours to claim. Book direct at sourceotails.com. Welcome back.

chaos continued in Haiti over the weekend with gangs staging assaults all across the capital of Port-au-Prince. The groups launched attacks on at least three police stations in the vicinity of the country's National Palace, that's the Haitian equivalent to the U.S. White House, where the president lives and works. Gangs also threw Molotov cocktails at the Interior Ministry headquarters. Now, of course, the Haitian president, well, he's not home to see all of this. Haiti's acting president Ariel Holmri is still marooned in San Juan Puerto Rico. He's been unable to return since leaving for Kenya last week, where he pled for assistance in restoring order.

The situation is growing increasingly grim in Port-au-Prince. According to our report in the Washington Post, bodies now litter the streets, which, quote, wreak with a stench of the dead. The report cites human rights activists who say that the smell of decaying corpses, is beginning to drive people from their homes. With no end in sight to the bloodshed that's currently plaguing the nation, the United States Embassy began evacuating some of its personnel on Sunday. In a statement posted to X, the embassy announced, quote,

heightened gang violence in the neighborhood near U.S. Embassy compounds and near the airport led to the State Department's decision to arrange for the departure of additional embassy personnel, end quote. According to U.S. Southern Command, the military conducted an airlift operation to evacuate non-essential American employees from the embassy and Port of Prince on Sunday morning. American Marines have also been deployed to help protect diplomatic personnel who remain stationed there. The evacuations come exactly one week after Haiti entered a state of emergency, after armed gangs staged a mass jailbreak, freeing nearly 4,000 prisoners.

thousand from two of the Caribbean nation's largest prisons. Haitian security forces only control around perhaps 20 percent of the nation's capital and gangs continue to operate with impunity. Caribbean leaders have called for an emergency meeting to be held in Jamaica today in order to address the violence. They've invited representatives from the U.S., France, Canada, the U.N., and Brazil to attend. We'll keep you posted on what, if anything, comes of that. All right, I want to return to President Biden's state of the union address from last week because something he said during the speech has apparently gotten him into a bit of trouble with its hard left base.

The moment in question came when Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green shouted at the president to say the name of Lakin Riley, the Georgia nursing student who was allegedly murdered by an illegal alien from Venezuela last month. Biden responded by saying, yes, by an illegal. That's right. Well, Biden's use of the term illegal that didn't set well with his progressive base, and he now says he regrets using it. Mind you, he regrets saying it because his political strategists have advised him that he needs to regret saying it. In an interview with MSNBC on Saturday, Biden apologized for using the term, saying, quote, I shouldn't have used illegal. It's actually undocumented.

Yeah, that's really the important crux of the matter, isn't it? He added that he doesn't mean to disrespect anybody who comes across the border. Okay. For the record, Riley's alleged killer, 26-year-old Jose Antonio Ibada, entered the United States illegally in 2022. He's been held without bond on multiple murder charges, aggravated battery, kidnapping, and other counts related. to Riley's death. Now, not to mince words here, but Ibarra is about as illegal as it gets. He entered the country illegally and then allegedly committed murder, which the last time I checked, well, it's illegal. But apparently, Biden's base feels like referring to Ibarra as an illegal is a bridge

too far. According to them, it's demeaning, it's insulting, it's dehumanizing. Now, no words yet on whether they feel like Ibarra allegedly beating Lake and Riley to death could also be considered dehumanizing. And this issue, it goes far beyond semantics. According to a recent analysis of U.S. Customs and Border Protection data, nearly 7.3 million migrants have illegally crossed the southwest border under President Biden's watch. Just to put that number into perspective, that number is larger than the population of 36 individual states. If you were to gather all of those illegal aliens into one place, it would be the second largest city in America,

and the first being, of course, New York City. In 2023, over 150 individuals that the officials are aware of on the terror watch list were caught crossing the southern border. That's more than any other year in history. For context, the number in 2020 was six. And this doesn't include the at least two million known godaways who crossed into the country without encountering any U.S. law enforcement. I mean, there's no accurate statistic for how many criminals, how many gang members of

MS-13 or Venezuela's Trendroagua, or any number of cartels, have entered the country. All right. Finally, coming up in today's back of the brief, the House of Representatives as advanced legislation targeting the popular Chinese-owned video sharing app, TikTok, and the only people standing in the way are millions of angry schoolchildren and former President Donald Trump. More on that after the break.

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In today's back of the brief, the popular video sharing app, TikTok, is once again in Washington's crosshairs with a bill that could lead to the app being unavailable in the United States, quickly gaining bipartisan support in the U.S. House of Representatives. TikTok has around 170 million American users, and is owned by a company called Bite Dance, that's an internet technology company based in Beijing. According to critics, the company has failed to prevent the collection of U.S. user data, which is then available, of course, to the Chinese Communist Party.

Now, the proposed legislation, it's not an outright ban. It would require Bite Dance to divert. invest from the app within 180 days. Otherwise, the application would become prohibited in the United States. The bill advanced out of committee last week in an unanimous bipartisan vote. That's rare these days, 50 to zero. House Speaker Mike Johnson could soon bring it up for a full vote in the House. Now, TikTok is not taking the threat lying down. Last week, the app sent an urgent message to millions of users asking them to call their members of Congress. The message read, quote, speak up now before your government strips 170 million Americans of their constitutional right to free expression, end quote.

Now, after the message was sent, congressional offices were swamped with phone calls from angry users, many of whom were reportedly children and some of them were even crying. One congressional staffer told Dailymail.com, quote, all four lines have been ringing off the hook. Lots of kids calling from schools, also way more grown men than I'd expect, end quote. Now, here's a tip. Any grown man who called Congress to demand that they not ban TikTok should immediately have their grown man card taken away. No dude should feel so strongly about TikTok that they call their congressional representative to complain. In addition to angry school kids, the new legislation has found an unexpected opponent, former President Donald Trump. Trump signaled his opposition to the ban in a post on truth social,

saying, quote, if you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck, I assume he means Zuckerberg, will double their business. I don't want Facebook who cheated in the last election, he said, doing better. They are a true enemy of the people. end quote. The opposition is an about face for Trump, who vowed to ban the TikTok app from operating in the U.S. while he was president and issued an order calling for the app's parent company to divest from the platform. That order was ultimately blocked by a federal court. And that, my friends, is the president's daily brief from Monday, 11 March. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at PDB at thefirsttv.com.

I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back later today with the PDB afternoon bulletin. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool.