Within hours of hearing that the United States had successfully brokered a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, Republicans were giving President-elect Donald Trump full credit for it.
“I think that’s a rhetorical question,” Sen. Jim Risch, the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters who asked if Trump’s threats prompted the deal. Risch went on to compare Trump to a historically inaccurate retelling of Ronald Reagan during the Iran hostage crisis. “Anybody who would look at this, who has common sense, knows that he did what Ronald Reagan did at the time that he took office with hostages being held in Iran.”
Days before Trump’s inauguration, the Republican ranks were clearly itching to give their leader an early win.
“He should get the Nobel Peace Prize,” Rep. Joe Wilson, a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who used to chair the subcommittee focused on the Middle East, told NOTUS.
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President Joe Biden’s White House officials have led negotiations between Hamas and Israeli leaders for more than a year. When Trump was elected, those officials said they began involving Trump’s team, including Rep. Mike Waltz, who Trump has tapped to be his national security adviser.
Brett McGurk, the White House coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, was eventually joined by Steve Witkoff, Trump’s chosen Middle East envoy, in Doha, Qatar.
“Four days ago, Steve Witkoff came out to join Brett in his final push, which I think is, historically, almost unprecedented,” a senior Biden administration official said.
The transition deadline helped, the senior official said.
“Any negotiation, any breakthrough diplomacy … sometimes you need a deadline,” they said. “There are deadlines that are just natural, and the transition from one president to another was one.”
On Wednesday, Biden reminded the public of the origins of this agreement. “This is the ceasefire agreement that I introduced last spring,” he said, referencing the framework at the basis of the ceasefire deal.
“This deal was developed and negotiated under my administration,” Biden said. “But its terms will be implemented, for the most part, by the next administration.”
The president acknowledged Trump’s team’s involvement: “For these past few days, we’ve been speaking as one team,” he said.
But he didn’t mince words when asked by a reporter if Trump was responsible for the deal.
“Is that a joke?” Biden said.
Even when not directly giving credit to Trump, Republicans found one way or another to make sure their party got the victory.
“Hamas and Iran probably didn’t want to have to deal with President Trump, they figured they’d cut the best deal they could now,” Sen. John Cornyn said, though he and other Republican senators NOTUS spoke with were hesitant to trust the process.
“We’ve had hostages there for a long time, including American citizens. And I think it’s a good thing, obviously, for the hostages to get released,” Cornyn said. “But again, the details matter, and that’s something I need to get briefed.”
The senior administration official credited Israel’s military pressure, especially on Iran, with this final round of negotiations.
“Hamas, which used to believe that cavalry was coming to save it, no matter what,” they said. “None of that is now there.”
Throughout his time as president-elect, Trump made public threats that there would be “hell to pay” if hostages weren’t returned before his inauguration.
Democrats, meanwhile, took Biden’s lead.
When asked who would be considered responsible for the ceasefire deal, Sen. Peter Welch responded rhetorically.
“You guys figure that out,” he told reporters. “I just want them to get the hostages home and the bombings to stop.”
Sen. Tim Kaine, meanwhile, addressed the Republicans taking a victory lap directly.
“The people who want to turn the good news of hostage release into the latest political victory in the day, that ain’t the way I do this job,” he said. “I’ll let those who think about this stuff in political terms spend time deciding who gets the credit. The reality is this is a good day.”
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John T. Seward is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.
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