White House Reporter Confronts Kirby on Biden’s ‘Red Line’ in Gaza: ‘How Many More Charred Corpses Does He Have to See?’

O’KEEFE: “So, how does this not violate the red line that the president laid out?”

KIRBY: “As I said, we don’t want to see a major ground operation. We haven’t seen that at this point.”

O’KEEFE: “How many more charred corpses does he have to see before the president considers the change of policy?”

KIRBY: “We don’t want to see a single more innocent life taken. And I kind of take a little offense at the question. No civilian casualties is the right number of civilian casualties. And this is not something that we’ve turned a blind eye to, nor has it been something we’ve ignored or neglected to raise with our Israeli counterparts, including, Ed, this weekend as a result of this particular strike. Now, they’re investigating it. So, let’s let them investigate it and see what they come up with.”

O’KEEFE: “But the president doesn’t have like, a personal limit to this?”

KIRBY: “The president has been very clear and very direct about what our expectations are for Israeli operations in Rafah, specifically, but in Gaza writ large. We don’t support, we won’t support a major ground operation in Rafah. And we’ve, again, been very consistent on that. And the president said that, should that occur, then it might make him have to make different decisions in terms of support. We haven’t seen that happen at this point.”

O’KEEFE: “Why not have him come out and say that himself?”

KIRBY: “The president has been speaking to leaders throughout the region on a regular basis. He has been addressing you guys in various fora. You’ve got plenty of opportunities to talk to the president, including, I might add, in a press conference last week.”