Politics

(WASHINGTON) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign on Tuesday ramped up its attacks on former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, accusing his Republican primary rival of running to be Donald Trump’s vice president — a position she indicated this month she would not accept.

DeSantis launched a new website with a sarcastic URL — trumpnikki2024.com — and a video ad meant to support the claim about Haley, in the latest sign of how the two are targeting each other as they jockey for a distant second-place spot to Trump in the 2024 race.

The minutelong ad, stocked with clips of television pundits talking about the race, highlights Haley’s decision to generally avoid sharply criticizing the former president, which is a difference from DeSantis, who has recently increased his attacks on Trump after months of holding his own fire.

Stamped at the top of the website is a spin-off of Trump’s campaign logo, with Haley’s name below Trump’s. Below it are the words “Make the Establishment Great Again.”

The site also lays out a timeline of the relationship between Trump and Haley, including past rumors that Haley might replace Mike Pence on Trump’s 2020 ballot — which a Haley spokeswoman denied to Politico at the time.

Responding to the website and ad, a Haley spokesperson told ABC News on Tuesday: “Phony Ron DeSantis has spent ten times more money attacking Nikki Haley than Donald Trump. He’ll say anything to try to salvage his sinking ship of a campaign. Nikki has been very clear from day one, she doesn’t play for second. Ron is trying to play for fourth in New Hampshire.”

Last week, during a stop in New Hampshire, DeSantis himself called on Haley to say whether or not she would accept the position of Trump’s vice president.

“She will not answer directly — and she owes you an answer to this — will she accept a vice presidential nomination from Donald Trump? Yes or no. I can tell you, under any circumstances, I will not accept that because that’s not why I’m running. I’m running for the nomination and to be president,” DeSantis said.

Haley had actually said a week earlier she would not accept a vice presidential position if it was offered to her.

“I don’t play for second,” she told a voter in Iowa who asked whether she would consider being Trump’s No 2. “I’ve never played for second my entire life. I’m not going to start right now.”

When pressed by the questioner if that was a “no,” Haley shook her head and made a throat-slashing gesture.

The DeSantis campaign referred ABC News to a comment the governor made in New Hampshire last week, when he argued that the lack of money Trump allies have spent attacking Haley shows their coziness.

However, a super PAC supporting Trump, Make America Great Again Inc., is now on the air going after Haley: In a new ad, the group hits Haley for, they say, flip-flopping on a gas tax hike while she was serving as governor of South Carolina.

On the new website, DeSantis’ campaign acknowledged the ad but criticized Haley for not responding, even though the former ambassador did exactly that on Tuesday in Atlantic, Iowa.

“Now Donald Trump’s running an ad against me. And we’ll be happy to take it. And what Trump’s ad says is a lie that Ron [DeSantis] already got called out for. He says I wanted to raise the gas tax. It’s absolutely not true. Americans for Tax Reform have already come out and said that that was totally misleading,” Haley said, before describing her record on the gas tax when she was governor.

Bryan Griffin, DeSantis’ press secretary, pointed to the lack of ad money Haley’s campaign has spent against Trump.

“Nikki Haley is so committed to her VP ambitions that she refuses to spend a dime attacking Donald Trump, despite MAGA Inc.’s new ad accurately blasting her for being a tax-hiking liberal,” Griffin told ABC News in a statement, in part.

ABC News’ Nicholas Kerr

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(NEW YORK) — Funeral services for Sandra Day O’Connor, who broke barriers as the first woman to ever serve as a Supreme Court justice, were held Tuesday at the National Cathedral in Washington.

President Joe Biden and Chief Justice John Roberts delivered eulogies at the invitation-only service, as did O’Connor’s son, Jay.

Biden began his remarks by remembering his time as ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee when it held the confirmation hearing for O’Connor, calling it a “momentous” day for the court and the country.

“Gracious, wise, civil and principled, Sandra Day O’Connor, the daughter of the American West, was a pioneer in her own right, breaking down the barriers in the political world and the nation’s conscience,” Biden said. “To her, the Supreme Court was the bedrock, the bedrock of America.”

Biden commended O’Connor for her lifelong dedication to “equal justice under the law” and her recognition of how the law impacts everyday Americans.

“One need not agree with all her decisions in order to recognize that her principles were deeply held and of the highest order,” he said, “and that her desire for civility was genuine, and her trust in the capacity of human institutions to make life better is what this world was abiding.”

“And how she embodied such attributes under pressure and scrutiny empowered generations of women in every part of American life, including the court itself, helping to open doors, secure freedom and prove that a woman can do everything a man can do and do it a heck of a lot better,” he continued.

O’Connor, who died on Dec. 1 at the age of 93, made history when she was appointed to the nation’s highest court in 1981 by then-President Ronald Reagan. In her 25 years on the bench, she was known for her congeniality and independence.

She authored landmark opinions upholding abortion access, affirmative action and on protections to the First Amendment. She was also one of the five justices who decided to end Florida’s recount of the 2000 election between George W. Bush and Al Gore.

Biden was seated in the front row at the National Cathedral alongside administration officials, including acting Labor Secretary Julie Su and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines. O’Connor’s family was also seated in the first row, and behind them were the nine current Supreme Court justices.

“It has been said that the Supreme Court is a family. A family composed entirely of in-laws,” Chief Justice Roberts said as he kicked off his remarks, prompting laughter.

In another light moment, Roberts recalled O’Connor’s comment to a reporter after he was chosen to succeed her on the court.

“She had nice things to say, but ended by noting that the only problem was, I didn’t wear a skirt,” he said. “My initial reaction was, ‘Of course, everything is negotiable.’ Fortunately, it didn’t come to that.”

Roberts also addressed her groundbreaking journey from lawyer to politician to the first-ever female Supreme Court justice, saying she had to carve out her own style and “ignore slights and work to bring people together.”

“In nearly a quarter-century on the court she was a strong, influential, iconic jurist,” he said. “Her leadership shaped the legal profession, making it obvious that judges are both women and men.”

O’Connor’s son, Jay, shared personal anecdotes of their family life, saying she was “still a mom in every sense of the word” while achieving extraordinary milestones in her professional career.

“We still wonder how she did it all,” he said.

Ahead of the funeral, O’Connor on Monday lay in repose in the Great Hall of the Supreme Court, where members of the public — including Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff — were able to pay their respects.

 

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(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice found “no evidence” that any foreign government “materially affected the security or integrity” of election infrastructure in the 2022 midterms, according to a declassified report released Monday night.

“We did detect some cyber activity that did not compromise election infrastructure networks, including from pro-Russian hacktivists and suspected People’s Republic of China (PRC) actors,” the report says.

In one instance, according to the report, pro-Russian “hacktivists” claimed they carried out a denial of service attack. The “hacktivists” said this resulted in temporarily restricted access to a state election website, the report said.

Among the key findings in the report was that the People’s Republic of China’s “cyber actors scanned both election-related and non-election state government websites.” Additionally, some of the alleged actors accumulated U.S. voter information that was publicly available U.S. voter information, “probably to collect personal identifying information and other data on US voters,” the report found.

Following their investigation, which also involved the FBI, the departments found “no evidence” that “any detected activity prevented voting, changed votes, or disrupted the ability to tally votes or to transmit election results in a timely manner; altered any technical aspect of the voting process; or otherwise compromised the integrity of voter registration information or any ballots cast during 2022 federal elections.”

There were, however, “multiple incidents” where Russian, Iranian and Chinese government-affiliated actors connected to campaign infrastructure during the 2022 elections “including PRC cyber actors broadly scanning state political party domains.”

“While some cyber activity resulted in accessing some components of campaign infrastructure, we do not have any indications of any information obtained through this activity released in influence operations or otherwise deployed, modified, or destroyed,” the report said.

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(WASHINGTON) — After facing backlash for saying immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country,” former President Donald Trump reiterated his hard-line views in a speech on Sunday — calling for a “clean up” of the country and, without detailing how, promising to shift “massive portions” of law enforcement to handle migrants at the border, including by recalling soldiers currently stationed overseas.

“We have to clean up our country,” Trump said before thousands of supporters gathered at a “commit to caucus” campaign event in Reno, Nevada. “We have to get all the criminals.”

At what was his third visit to the state so far this year, Trump dedicated nearly 20 minutes of his 80-minute speech talking about border security and immigration, repeating his frequent and hyperbolic claims that “drug dealers,” “gang members,” “criminals” and people from mental institutions are “invading” the country.

As he ramps up his third bid for the White House, Trump is again making his opposition to immigration and pledge to militarize the border central to his campaign, at the same time that polling shows the public sharply disapproves of President Joe Biden’s handling of the issue.

His speech in Reno was also reflective of his consistently extremist rhetoric about immigrants, which has long drawn vocal outcry.

Just one day earlier, at a rally in Durham, New Hampshire, Trump sparked an onslaught of criticism for praising multiple authoritarian leaders and repeating anti-immigration sentiment that echoed fascist leaders like Adolf Hitler with his remark that immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country.”

Hitler wrote about “blood poisoning” in his book Mein Kampf.

Last month, Trump faced a similar backlash after he compared his political opponents to “vermin” that he must “root out,” similarly alarming detractors and historians alike that said those comments echoed past fascist leaders. Trump’s campaign denied that and pushed back against that criticism.

In Reno on Sunday, “Safer with Trump” was the campaign slogan of the day, the catchphrase shown on two screens by Trump as he made his claims about immigrants and how the Biden administration had failed to keep America safe.

“Under our leadership, you were safer, your family was safer, your communities were safer, your children were safer, your borders were safer and your whole country was safer, a lot safer,” Trump said on Sunday.

Repeating his stump speech promise to implement the “largest deportation operation in America” in a potential second term, Trump also claimed he would “shift massive portions of federal law enforcement to immigration enforcement,” saying, “We must use any and all resources needed.”

Trump said that would include moving “thousands of troops currently stationed overseas in countries that don’t like us” to the border — one of many sweeping promises and claims made at campaign events without providing the specifics of how he plans to implement those policies.

“We have to protect our own borders first before we defend the borders of foreign countries,” Trump said in Reno as he again promised to “terminate every open border policy of the Biden administration” as well as “restore and expand the Trump travel ban,” referring to a controversial prohibition he put in place as president on some mostly Muslim countries.

He again proposed further restrictions, including implementing a “strong ideological screen” for all immigrants, and repeated conspiratorial beliefs about Chinese nationals of “the perfect age of an army” coming into the country.

While event attendees seemed to embrace Trump’s ideas, some other Republican voters, like Patrick Sekarski of Oskaloosa, Iowa, said they were turned off by Trump’s harsh anti-immigration rhetoric in comparison to his 2024 GOP rival Ron DeSantis.

“This is part of the drama we’re trying to get away from. There’s no reason for it,” Sekarski told ABC News at a DeSantis campaign event in Iowa on Sunday.

But many Trump supporters said they are unswayed, like Tracy Valdez of Sacramento, California, who said “he speaks the truth” about migrants.

“He’s not afraid to hurt people’s feelings,” Valdez, who attended Trump’s Reno event on Sunday, told ABC News. “And there’s nothing wrong with that.”

The Biden White House denounced Trump’s continued comments, with a spokesman saying in a statement that he was “echoing the grotesque rhetoric of fascists and violent white supremacists.”

At the Reno event, Trump also again called President Joe Biden a “threat to democracy” while claiming his political opponents are “willing to violate the Constitution” — reversing a frequent attack of Biden on him.

Trump called his political opponents within the country “far worse” than outside opponents, labeling them as “vicious” and “dangerous” people and saying, “This nation does not belong to them.”

He also praised and defended those who gathered for the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol and the so-called “false electors” who were recently indicted by Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford for falsely portraying themselves as the state’s presidential electors in 2020, including Nevada Republican Chairman Michael McDonald, Nevada GOP Vice Chairman Jim Hindle and Clark County GOP Chairman Jesse Law, who were at the Reno event.

(Law, McDonald and Hindle could not be reached for comment.)

Trump, who maintains a large polling lead in Nevada over his Republican primary rivals like Florida Gov. DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, spent most of his time at the Reno event going after Biden, giving a glimpse into what his line of attacks against his potential Democratic rival in the general election would be.

He blamed the president for “failures, disasters, heartless betrayals and a thing called inflation.”

As he has been doing at recent events in Iowa, Trump asked his supporters to “pretend” he’s down a few points in the primary race to motivate them to come out to vote in Nevada on Feb. 8.

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(WASHINGTON) — An SUV that was part of President Joe Biden’s motorcade was struck by another vehicle as Biden was walking out of a dinner on Sunday night, according to reporters traveling with the president.

Biden had just finished answering a reporter’s question when the crash occurred, appearing to startle the president. Secret Service agents then walked Biden to his waiting SUV. First lady Jill Biden was already in the vehicle, according to the press pool. The pair had just attended a dinner with staff at his campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware.

The driver, a 46-year-old man from Wilmington, has been charged with driving a vehicle under the influence of alcohol and inattentive driving, according to a Wilmington police.

The collision was determined to be accidental, police said.

Police had previously said they were investigating the accident to determine whether impairment was a factor.

“The Wilmington Police Department is investigating the motor vehicle collision, which did not result in any injuries. Investigators are also working to determine if impairment was a factor,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

The U.S. Secret Service said in a statement that President Biden departed without incident and there was no threat toward him.

“Today, at approximately 8:09 p.m., a Secret Service vehicle securing the President’s motorcade route was struck by another vehicle in Wilmington, DE. There was no protective interest associated with this event and the President’s motorcade departed without incident,” the statement read.

The car involved appeared to be a gold Ford sedan, according to footage from the scene reviewed by ABC News.

After the incident, the car had visible damage to its front bumper.

 

 

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(WASHINGTON) — An SUV that was part of President Joe Biden’s motorcade was struck by another vehicle as Biden was walking out of a dinner on Sunday night, according to reporters traveling with the president.

Biden had just finished answering a reporter’s question when the crash occurred, appearing to startle the president. Secret Service agents then walked Biden to his waiting SUV. First lady Jill Biden was already in the vehicle, according to the press pool. The pair had just attended a dinner with staff at his campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware.

Police are looking at whether impairment was a factor in the accident, according to a Wilmington, Delaware, Police spokesperson.

“The Wilmington Police Department is investigating the motor vehicle collision, which did not result in any injuries. Investigators are also working to determine if impairment was a factor,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

The U.S. Secret Service agency said in a statement that President Biden departed without incident and there was no threat towards him.

“Today, at approximately 8:09 p.m., a Secret Service vehicle securing the President’s motorcade route was struck by another vehicle in Wilmington, DE. There was no protective interest associated with this event and the President’s motorcade departed without incident,” the statement read.

The car involved appeared to be a gold Ford sedan, according to footage from the scene reviewed by ABC.

After the incident, the car had visible damage to its front bumper.

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(WASHINGTON) — Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor will be memorialized this week in the nation’s capital.

O’Connor, who died on Dec. 1 at age 93, is lying in repose in the Great Hall of the Supreme Court on Monday, where the public will have the ability to pay respects.

Supreme Court police officers served on the casket team, and O’Connor’s seven grandchildren served as honorary pallbearers.

All nine current Supreme Court justices attended Monday’s service, during which Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Rev. Jane E. Fahey, who served as a law clerk for O’Connor in the 1980s, delivered remarks. Both women described O’Connor as a trailblazer and friend, and remarked in detail about O’Connor’s congeniality on the court.

“She was devoted to making a better world, and that’s what she did,” Sotomayor said, adding that O’Connor was her “life role model.”

Sotomayor also discussed O’Connor’s impact on the law in her nearly 700 opinions from the bench, saying she approached every case with “incredible thoughtfulness and sought to arrive at a practical conclusion.”

“The nation was well served by the steady hand and intellect of a justice who never lost sight of how the law affected ordinary people,” she said.

A 1999 portrait of O’Connor was on display while she lied in repose.

Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman visited the Supreme Court to pay their respects, according to her office.

“I first met Justice O’Connor years ago. Like so many who knew her, I will always remember her kindness, intelligence, and deep love for our country,” Harris said in a statement first marking O’Connor’s passing.

O’Connor’s funeral will be held at the Washington National Cathedral on Tuesday. The service will not be open to the public, but journalists covering the event will be in attendance.

President Joe Biden and Chief Justice John Roberts will give eulogies at the funeral as will O’Connor’s son, Jay.

“Justice O’Connor’s indomitable spirit and unwavering commitment to justice made her a pioneer and an inspiration to generations, breaking barriers and leaving an enduring mark on the nation’s highest court,” said Randolph Marshall Hollerith, dean of the cathedral, which has hosted multiple former presidents’ funerals and other notable memorials. “The Cathedral has been blessed by her many years of service and worship.”

O’Connor’s death was announced by the Supreme Court, citing “complications related to advanced dementia, probably Alzheimer’s, and a respiratory illness.”

She was named as the high court’s first female jurist by then-President Ronald Reagan in 1981.

The former justice, who said during her confirmation hearing that “the proper role of the judiciary is one of interpreting and applying the law — not making it,” was often a swing vote on the court, going on to write landmark opinions on abortion access and affirmative action. More controversially, she was also a key vote in the ruling that allowed George W. Bush to win the 2000 presidential election.

O’Connor later wrote that being the first female jurist was a challenge, but that she was “grateful” for opening a door for other women.

“The first woman on the Court was carefully scrutinized by the press, the government, the lawyers, and the public,” O’Connor wrote in her 2013 history of the Supreme Court. “It is not always comfortable to be the object of so much attention. But the appointment of a woman to the Court opened countless doors to women all across the country. For that I am grateful.”

ABC News’ Molly Nagle contributed to this report.

 

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(WASHINGTON) — Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor will be memorialized this week in the nation’s capital.

O’Connor, who died on Dec. 1 at age 93, will lie in repose in the great hall of the Supreme Court on Monday, where the public will have the ability to pay respects following a private ceremony. Supreme Court police officers will serve on the casket team, and honorary pallbearers will be designated by the family.

A 1999 portrait of O’Connor will be on display while she lies in repose.

Her funeral will be held at the Washington National Cathedral on Tuesday. The service will not be open to the public, but journalists covering the event will be in attendance.

President Joe Biden and the Supreme Court’s chief justice, John Roberts, will give eulogies at the funeral as will O’Connor’s son Jay.

“Justice O’Connor’s indomitable spirit and unwavering commitment to justice made her a pioneer and an inspiration to generations, breaking barriers and leaving an enduring mark on the nation’s highest court,” said Randolph Marshall Hollerith, dean of the cathedral, which has hosted multiple former presidents’ funerals and other notable memorials. “The Cathedral has been blessed by her many years of service and worship.”

O’Connor’s death was announced by the Supreme Court, citing “complications related to advanced dementia, probably Alzheimer’s, and a respiratory illness.”

She was named as the high court’s first female jurist by then-President Ronald Reagan in 1981.

The former justice, who said during her confirmation hearing that “the proper role of the judiciary is one of interpreting and applying the law — not making it,” was often a swing vote on the court, going on to write landmark opinions on abortion access and affirmative action. More controversially, she was also a key vote in the ruling that allowed George W. Bush to win the 2000 presidential election.

O’Connor later wrote that being the first female jurist was a challenge but that she was “grateful” for opening a door for other women.

“The first woman on the Court was carefully scrutinized by the press, the government, the lawyers, and the public,” O’Connor wrote in her 2013 history of the Supreme Court. “It is not always comfortable to be the object of so much attention. But the appointment of a woman to the Court opened countless doors to women all across the country. For that I am grateful.”

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(WASHINGTON) — With less than a month until the first votes are cast in the 2024 Republican primary, former President Donald Trump spent his latest rally in New Hampshire praising multiple authoritarian leaders and quoting Russian President Vladimir Putin to try and discredit the criminal indictments against him — while sparking new backlash from critics that his anti-immigrant sentiment echoes Adolf Hitler.

“They’re poisoning the blood of our country. That’s what they’ve done,” Trump said Saturday in Durham, New Hampshire. “They’re coming into our country, from Africa, from Asia, over the world. They’re pouring into our country.”

The former president, again, praised authoritarian leaders including Hungary’s Viktor Orban, China’s Xi Jinping and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un — and called President Joe Biden a “threat to democracy,” reversing a frequent attack of Biden on him.

Trump went on to quote Russia’s president when calling the criminal cases pending against him “politically motivated.” Prosecutors have rejected that accusation and defended their work.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to the 91 charges he faces across four cases in three states and Washington, D.C.

“Putin of Russia says that Biden’s, and this is a quote, ‘politically motivated persecution of his political rival’ is very good for Russia because it shows the rottenness of the American political system, which cannot pretend to teach others about democracy,'” Trump said at the rally. “So we talk about democracy, but the whole world is watching the persecution of a political opponent that’s kicking his ass.”

The Biden campaign quickly seized on the comments, blasting the former president in a rapid response email on Saturday night, saying Trump “channeled his role models as he parroted Adolf Hitler, praised Kim Jong Un, and quoted Vladimir Putin while running for president on a promise to rule as a dictator and threaten American democracy.”

“He is betting he can win this election by scaring and dividing this country. He’s wrong,” Biden campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa said in a statement. “In 2020, Americans chose President Biden’s vision of hope and unity over Trump’s vision of fear and division — and they’ll do the same next November.”

The former president has repeatedly used the phrase “poisoning the blood” when talking about some immigrants throughout the 2024 campaign cycle, drawing scrutiny from critics who say that language is used by white supremacists and Hitler, who infamously wrote about “blood poisoning” in his book “Mein Kampf.”

Trump doubled down on those remarks after Saturday’s rally, posting similar statements about unauthorized immigrants on his social media platform.

During his four years in the White House, Trump implemented a series of strict policies to limit immigration, including for people who enter the country illegally, travel from certain largely Muslim countries or who seek to claim asylum in the U.S.

That often drew outcry from advocates, such as when officials separated migrant families — some of whom remain separated, according to activists — as part of prosecutions of illegal border crossings.

With polls indicating a rematch between Biden and Trump next November is increasingly likely, Biden has focused on an argument that Trump would be dangerous to democracy if reelected while Trump accuses Biden of ruining the country, particularly on issues like the border, as he vows to act as a form of retribution for himself and his supporters.

During a Veterans Day rally in New Hampshire, Trump vowed to “root out” his political opponents, who he said “live like vermin” as he warned supporters that America’s greatest threats come “from within” — yet again startling experts and critics who said his words echoed those of past fascist dictators like Hitler and Benito Mussolini. A Trump campaign spokesman dismissed the backlash to that speech.

Trump’s campaign rhetoric includes repeated recent comments that he won’t be a dictator as president “except for day one,” so that he could focus on the border and on drilling, though after receiving criticism from those remarks, the former president attempted to course correct and claim he was only joking.

Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie, a former ally-turned vocal critic of Trump’s who is running against him in the 2024 race, admonished Trump’s latest speech in an interview on Sunday — and extended his criticism to other Republicans like fellow 2024 candidate Nikki Haley, whom Christie said isn’t doing enough to keep Trump out of office.

“Donald Trump realized the walls are closing in, and he’s becoming crazier, and now he’s citing Vladimir Putin as a character witness, a guy who is a murderous thug around the world,” Christie said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“What he’s doing is dog-whistling to Americans who feel absolutely under stress and strain from the economy and from the conflicts around the world and he’s dog-whistling to blame it on people that don’t look like us,” Christie said.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, meanwhile, when asked Saturday in Iowa if that’s the type of language that should be used by someone who wants to be president, said he hadn’t heard the comments himself yet but repeated his rhetoric on border issues. (Haley and GOP candidate Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaigns did not immediately respond to requests for comment.)

“Well, I didn’t hear what he said. And so I don’t want to respond until I get to see,” DeSantis told reporters on the trail. “What I would say, though, is we have to be smart about what we’re doing in this country. And when you have people that are coming to this border, coming across our border illegally, from countries that are hostile to us — we’re going to be very tough on who’s able to come into this country, because I think that what’s going on now, at the border in particular, has been a total train wreck.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen on Sunday said the Biden administration is not being heeded in its entreaties for Israel to reduce the civilian death toll from the military campaign against Hamas extremists in Gaza, which is being carried out with U.S. support.

“I don’t think it’s getting through clearly enough because we continue to see unacceptably high levels of civilian casualties,” Van Hollen told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl. “And when it comes to the humanitarian crisis [in Gaza], we still have a near-total siege.”

The Maryland lawmaker, who serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, acknowledged there had recently been some positive developments, such as Israel opening an important border crossing into the territory — but “it shouldn’t take this long.”

“Look, President [Joe] Biden has been absolutely right to stand with Israel in the objective of ending the military threat from Hamas. No more Oct. 7s,” Van Hollen said, referencing the Hamas terror attack on Israel that sparked the war.

“But,” the senator continued, “he’s also right that how Israel conducts this operation, how the Netanyahu government conducts this operation, is important — and that is why it’s really essential that these issues be addressed. And they’re not being addressed sufficiently enough to my mind.”

Nearly 19,000 people have died in Gaza since the fighting began two months ago, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry; 1,200 people were killed in Israel in the October attack, according to the Israeli prime minister’s office.

The concern from Van Hollen comes amid Israel’s continued aerial and ground offensives in Gaza, intended to dismantle Hamas throughout the territory.

The Biden administration is providing key arms and other assistance to Israel, including recently bypassing Congress to send Israel almost 14,000 tank cartridges as part of what it called an “emergency” need.

At the same time, the president and others like Secretary of State Antony Blinken have been increasingly vocal that Israel should narrow its retaliatory campaign to limit the widespread death and destruction to civilians in Gaza.

Some progressives in the Democratic Party have joined pro-Palestinian activists in pushing for a total cease-fire. Biden has rejected that, saying it would help Hamas, but said last week that Israel was losing support internationally and should change course.

“Nothing will stop us. We are going on to the end, until victory, nothing less,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week.

While Israeli military officials insist they take steps to save civilians, despite the death toll, they also say Hamas is deliberately embedded in civilian communities — making it that much harder.

“The United States is not a bystander to this. We are a big supplier, of course, a supplier of military assistance to Israel,” Van Hollen said Sunday. “So we are with them [Israel] entirely in the objective of ending the military threat. But again, we need to make sure that our values are reflected in this so long as we are providing all of this equipment.”

Van Hollen criticized “very loose rules of engagement” and suggested there is a relative lack of restraint by Israeli forces who are focused on pursuing Hamas leaders.

Van Hollen also knocked Netanyahu over recent comments where Netanyahu touted his past efforts against an independent Palestinian state — contending Palestinians are a threat to Israel.

Van Hollen argued the Israeli government should have taken more steps to support the Palestinian Authority, a Hamas rival which recognizes Israel’s right to exist, while limiting controversial moves like expanding Jewish settlements in the Palestinian West Bank.

“Instead of trying to find peace or at least preventing the conditions on the ground from changing, with additional settlements to allow a two-state solution, he has shut the door on that effort,” Van Hollen said.

Fears over broader violence in the Middle East have escalated amid what officials have said are clashes on Israel’s northern border with Hezbollah, attacks by Iranian proxies on U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria and drone and ballistic missile launches on commercial ships from Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen.

Van Hollen praised the Biden administration’s response so far in the Red Sea, after U.S. and other warships shot down projectiles from Yemen, but warned there would be a heavy price to pay if any American was hurt or killed.

He also said that the U.S. taking large-scale action against the Houthis could risk America being “bogged down” or distracted in the region.

“I think that the administration has been smart in terms of how it’s responded to those attacks, but clearly the risk of an American being killed in the process is high, and that would obviously create a big response for the United States,” he said.

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