WASHINGTON--As president, Joe Biden has relied heavily on Teleprompters and pre-written scripts for his public speeches, a mostly disciplined approach that's been in sharp contrast to his decades of free-wheeling, sometimes less-than-diplomatic remarks. But holding a microphone in a room of donors who support his 2024 re-election campaign, Democrat Biden in recent months has dug into the Chinese government, the Republican Party and U.S. ally Israel for its bombing of the Gaza Strip. He's likely just getting started. The 2024 campaign trail will include dozens of fundraising events. Biden first told donors in June that he considered Chinese President Xi Jinping to be a dictator, prompting howls of protest from Beijing. Biden, 81, said at a fundraiser in December that he might not have launched his re-election bid if Republican Donald Trump, who he defeated in 2020, was not also running, a discordant message for a campaign battling concerns about his age and low approval ratings. Trump is 77. Then, on Dec. 12, Biden said he brought up Israel's "indiscriminate" bombing in a private discussion with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the first time Biden has publicly expressed real frustration with Netanyahu's government since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks and Israel's retaliatory strikes on Gaza. Biden's open-mic disclosures are clashing with the White House system built to keep him on script. The comments sometimes baffle, rankle, or worry his aides, who are forced to explain or contradict them later. They often struggle to shift attention back to the administration's message of the day, or explain why Biden's comments are seemingly at odds with official U.S. policy. As Biden himself has acknowledged, his candor can sometimes cause problems. "No one ever doubts I mean what I say," Biden told donors last year. "The problem is I sometimes say all that I mean." The White House and the Biden re-election campaign declined to comment. Biden's use of the word "indiscriminate" raised questions about the U.S. view of the legality of Israel's campaign, which has killed more than 21,800 people, according to health authorities in Hamas-run Gaza. White House and State Department officials were grilled by journalists on what Biden meant, exactly, and whether he speaks for the United States government or not. It's not just a question of semantics. The Biden's administration's own policy prohibits arms to be transferred to other nations for genocide, crimes against humanity, breaches of the Geneva conventions or serious violations of international law. The latter prohibits "indiscriminate attacks." Biden was just expressing concern that Israel be careful and mindful of civilian casualties, spokesperson John Kirby told reporters the next day. Biden also told donors at the same fundraiser that he told Netanyahu his government needed "to change," and he had said in the past that "I don't agree with a damn thing you have to say." As Biden warmed up to the topic, reporters were asked to leave the room by Biden's aides, but declined to do so. Kirby, pressed the next day to clarify, reached for a more diplomatic tone. "The president realizes that Israel is a powerful, vibrant democracy, and any change in the government is going to have to be determined by the Israeli people," he said. The comments on Israel instantly became a top news story of the day, displacing a visit to Washington by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who was pleading with Republicans in Congress to approve more funding to repel Russia's invasion. Consistency in messaging is important, particularly in matters of international diplomacy, foreign policy experts say. "At some point if what you say in your fundraising speeches is very different from what you're saying in your other public appearances it's a problem," said Lanhee Chen, a long-time political operative and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
