President Joe Biden took a few questions during a brief ice cream break with NBC late-night host and comedian Seth Meyers, telling reporters he hoped the United States could help facilitate a ceasefire in Gaza by Monday.
Biden, between bites of his ice cream cone, said that his advisors were telling him that they were “close” to an agreement that could bring about at least a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, the terror group that controls Gaza and is responsible for the unprovoked attacks on Israel on October 7 of last year.
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President Biden and @sethmeyers get ice cream.pic.twitter.com/LZ7fNSQkvE
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Meyers and Biden walked into the ice cream shop, and after some banter with others inside, the president decided on mint chocolate chip ice cream, “And how about a sugar cone?”
“I was worried you were going to be that guy who asks for all the samples,” Meyers joked, getting laughs from the president and several others.
Once Biden got his ice cream, he offered to buy ice cream for anyone else who wanted some. “The last of the big spenders,” he joked, asking the cameraman and others if they wanted some ice cream. “It’s not a bribe.”
Reporters started shouting questions then, asking about his planned trip to the southern border on Thursday.
Biden explained that he had been planning the trip for a while but had not realized that his likely 2024 opponent — former President Donald Trump — was planning to be there that same day. When asked whether he planned to meet with migrants, Biden demurred and said that the Secret Service didn’t like it when he told people his plans.
“Can you give us a sense of when you think a ceasefire will start?” another reporter asked, changing the subject to the Israel-Hamas war.
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Biden, who said on Meyers’ show that he was working to facilitate at least a temporary ceasefire in an effort to get any remaining hostages released, predicted something “by the end of the weekend.”
“Well, I hope by the end of the weekend,” he said between bites. “At least my — my National Security Advisor tells me that we’re close. We’re close, we’re not done yet. My hope is by next Monday we’ll have a ceasefire.”