“Stop it now!”: Jill Biden privately asks husband to stop situation in Gaza

One of the loudest voices within the White House urging an end to civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip is the person closest to the president: Jill Biden.

During a meeting with members of the Muslim community at the White House on Tuesday evening, a guest told the president that his wife had not approved of his attending the meeting because of Biden’s support for Israel in its war against Hamas.

Biden responded that he understood. The first lady, the president said, had urged him to do so “Stop, stop now”according to one attendee who heard his comments.

Salima Suswell, founder of the Black Muslim Leadership Council, recounted the scene in an interview, adding that she scribbled down the president’s remarks because it caught her attention to know that the first lady had strong feelings about the conflict.

“Enough!”

“He said she said: «Enough, enough, Joe‘” Suswell said.

Asked about the president’s comments, White House officials said Wednesday that there was no clear light between Biden and the first lady on the conflict and that the president was as outraged by the civilian casualties as was his wife. Officials said the first lady he was not calling on Israel to end its efforts against Hamas.

Biden addressed growing alarm among other Democrats over his support for the war, as well as letters of internal dissent, including objections from officials at about 40 government agencies.

But the first lady occupies the most influential space within Biden’s inner circle and is one of the few people who gives you an unvarnished opinion on political issues.

Jill Biden has in the past opposed American involvement in foreign conflicts, in part because her son, Beau Biden enlisted in the Delaware Army National Guard in 2003 and deployed to Iraq in 2008. She supported her husband’s decision to withdraw American troops of Afghanistan, despite the deadly and chaotic effort that followed.

“I think he trusts my intuition as a spouse,” she told the New York Times in an interview in 2021, “not as a policymaker or consultant.