President Biden harshly criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the way he is prosecuting the war between Israel and Hamas during an interview with Spanish language broadcaster Univision. 

‘I think what he’s doing is a mistake,’ Biden said in an hour-long interview set to air Tuesday night about whether the Israeli leader cares more about his political survival than the national interest of his people. ‘I don’t agree with his approach.’

The interview between Biden and Enrique Acevedo was taped last Wednesday, according to media reports. 

Israel has received an increasing amount of criticism for its military offensive in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip following the deadly Oct. 7 attacks by the terror group. 

The scorn has mounted following the deaths of several World Central Kitchen workers in Gaza by Israeli airstrikes. Israel said the strike was a mistake and that the WCK vehicles were not targeted. 

Democrats have also called for Biden to withhold arms to Israel unless it does everything possible to limit civilian casualties on the battlefield. Last month, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. called for Israel to hold new elections. 

In the interview, Biden called for Israel to work toward a ceasefire. 

‘So I what I’m calling for is for the Israelis to just call for a ceasefire, allow for the next six, eight weeks total access to all food and medicine going into the country,’ he said. 

‘I’ve spoken with everyone from the Saudis to the Jordanians to the Egyptians. They’re prepared to move in,’ Biden added. ‘They’re prepared to move this food in. And I think there’s no excuse to not provide for the medical and the food needs of those people. It should be done now.’

Biden’s criticism comes as progressives are calling for voters to cast so-called ‘protest ballots’ rather than support Biden. Many of the those progressives have accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. 

On Tuesday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said there was no evidence that Israel was engaged in genocide. 

‘We don’t have any evidence of genocide being created. We don’t have any evidence of that to my knowledge,’ Austin told Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark. 

Congress is now one step closer to extending the life of a key federal government surveillance tool known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

A bill to reauthorize FISA’s Section 702 passed through the House Rules Committee on Tuesday night, the final hurdle for a piece of legislation before it’s considered House-wide. It passed in a 9 to 2 vote.

Section 702 is a provision that allows the federal government to conduct warrantless surveillance of a foreign national outside the U.S. if they’re suspected of ties to terrorism — even if the person on the other end of the communications is an American citizen.

National security hawks and members of the intelligence community have called it a critical tool for preventing another 9/11-style attack. But critics, which include both conservatives and progressives, have been seeking to limit its scope after reported instances of abuse to collect data on Americans.

The fight over Section 702’s renewal has been among the most bitter that House Republicans have had to contend with, while Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., also grapples with a razor-thin majority. The current process is House GOP leaders’ third attempt at the tool’s renewal before the April 19 deadline.

The Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act, a compromise bill between the House Judiciary Committee and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, is aimed at curbing instances of abuse by instituting safeguards on accessing Section 702-collected data, particularly if it involves a U.S. citizen.

Under terms agreed upon in the Rules Committee, the House will vote on an amendment backed by the Judiciary Committee to ban warrantless searches of U.S. citizens before voting on the final bill.

A GOP lawmaker opposed to the amendment told Fox News Digital on Tuesday evening, ‘That would effectively kill 702, if that passed.’

Not included in the final bill was an amendment sought by privacy hawks, led by Rep. Warran Davidson, R-Ohio, which would have forced the federal government to seek a warrant before buying U.S. citizens’ data from third-party brokers. 

Opponents of that provision, mostly from the House Intelligence Committee, complained that it was not relevant to Section 702 and would have bogged down its chances of passing in the Senate. 

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told Fox News Digital earlier on Tuesday that Davidson’s amendment would be voted on as a standalone bill later.

The House of Representatives is expected to vote on the Section 702 renewal bill on Thursday, Fox News Digital is told. On Wednesday, administration officials will descend on Capitol Hill for an all-member House briefing on FISA.

Fox News’ Tyler Olson contributed to this report

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., is gearing up to announce that he’s raised a whopping $12 million in the first three months of 2024 as the GOP braces for the battle to keep the House majority.

It’s part of $36 million the No. 2 House Republican has raised so far during the 2024 election cycle, which began January 2023, according to figures viewed by Fox News Digital. Of the cycle total, $16.1 million was raised solely online.

‘Team Scalise isn’t slowing down,’ he told Fox News Digital in an interview. ‘Our digital program has been phenomenal – this [2024 election cycle] we’ve raised over $16 million online … more than any other member of Congress, Republican or Democrat.’

Scalise is funneling a significant portion of that amount into races across the country, including $12 million directly to the House GOP campaign arm, the National Republican Congressional Committee, he said.

It’s a strong showing for the Louisiana Republican, a historically prolific fundraiser who spent a significant portion of the current Congress undergoing treatment for cancer that he was diagnosed with in August 2023.

It comes as Republicans fight through their second year with a razor-thin House majority, which will be whittled down to just one vote after the April 19 departure of Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis.

Scalise said House Republicans can keep and even expand that margin. He named Michigan, Pennsylvania, Alaska, Ohio and even California as places with seats that could flip from blue to red.

‘There’s about 20-plus seats right now that are held by Democrats today that have a very real chance of flipping for Republican candidates,’ he said. 

Scalise named border security and energy prices – and how President Biden has handled both – as two top issues Republicans can lead on to win across the country in November.

‘The top issue you hear about everywhere you go is border security. People are furious that we had over 8 million people come across the border illegally and Joe Biden won’t do anything to stop it,’ Scalise said. ‘And then there’s just the high cost of everything – energy, of course, being at the top of the list, but also groceries – you know, just people talking about sharing their stories about how expensive things are because of the inflation caused by all of the spending in D.C. and all of the policies coming out of Washington.’

A recent Fox News poll showed that 73% of Americans rate the economy negatively – a drop from 83% in May but still a significant number roughly nine months before a presidential election.

The late-March survey also saw Biden get just 30% approval on his handling of immigration, which is a new low.

Scalise said dissatisfaction with life under the Democrat president could also be key to the GOP’s victory in November.

‘Joe Biden is a huge drag on the Democrats’ ticket right now. That’s going to be a big problem for them,’ he said.

Israel’s foreign minister drew a line in the sand with Iran on Wednesday, warning the country that Israel would respond with direct attacks on Iranian targets if Iran launches an attack on Israel from within its territory.

The minister, Israel Katz, issued the warning after Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei once again threatened retaliation for an Israeli airstrike that killed several top Iranian military officials in Syria last week.

‘If Iran attacks from its territory, Israel will respond and attack in Iran,’ Katz said in a post on X.

Iran has long carried out attacks against Israel, but it has typically done so through proxy terrorist groups like Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis. It would be a major escalation in the conflict for Iran to attack Israel directly, and likewise for Israel to strike targets within Iran’s territory.

The exchange of threats between Israel and Iran is the latest sign that Israel’s war against Hamas could explode into a regional conflict, something the U.S. has sought to avoid.

While the U.S. remains a staunch ally of Israel, there is a widening rift between President Biden’s administration and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

Biden criticized Netanyahu’s current plans for the war in Gaza as a ‘mistake’ in an interview with Univision published Tuesday night.

‘I think what he’s doing is a mistake,’ Biden told the outlet. ‘I don’t agree with his approach.’

Biden’s criticisms have related largely to civilian casualties in Gaza, deaths which Israel insists it is doing all it can to prevent.

Democrats in Congress have gone so far as to call for Biden to withhold arms to Israel unless it does everything possible to limit civilian casualties on the battlefield. Last month, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. called for Israel to hold new elections to replace Netanyahu, prompting backlash from Israeli officials.

Fox News’ Louis Casiano contributed to this report.

A sticking point in Congress’ fight over renewing a controversial surveillance tool appears to have been resolved days before the House of Representatives is expected to vote on the issue, but not everyone is happy with the decision. 

‘Freedom surrendered is rarely reclaimed. It looks like the plan has shifted to further infringe the right to privacy – under the guise of [FISA] reform. Shameful,’ Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, wrote on X.

Discussions over renewing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which expires on April 19, abruptly blew up in February when Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee walked away from a compromise bill they spent months putting together with the House Judiciary Committee.

Multiple sources close to the Intelligence panel told Fox News Digital at the time that the legislative text had been changed to potentially allow for the inclusion of an amendment led by Davidson that would have required the federal government to obtain a warrant before purchasing U.S. citizens’ data from big tech firms. Those sources argued that it was unrelated to Section 702’s intelligence gathering practices and could have sunk the bill.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told Fox News Digital on Tuesday that Davidson’s measure, the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act, would instead be getting a separate vote on the House floor.

‘This time it’s going to be its own bill, separately to FISA,’ Scalise said. ‘So that one’s gonna go separately.’

‘We wanted to get this before the membership, before the expiration of FISA and get it over to the Senate,’ he added.

It is not immediately clear when that measure would get a vote, but its decoupling from the FISA renewal bill is likely to boost the latter legislation’s odds of passing in the Senate. At the same time, it is a blow to privacy hawks who were hoping to use the renewal process to put more distance between the federal government and Americans’ data.

In his X post Monday, Davidson suggested House GOP leadership was infringing on Americans’ civil liberties with the move. Fox News Digital reached out to his office for further comment.

James Czerniawski, a tech policy expert for the conservative advocacy group Americans for Prosperity, argued of the decision, ‘Taking the databroker loophole and separating it from the FISA all but ensures it dies in the Senate.’

The bill to renew FISA Section 702 is expected to get a vote on Thursday, according to an early schedule viewed by Fox News Digital.

FISA Section 702 allows the federal government to surveil foreign nationals overseas who are suspected of terrorism ties without a warrant, even if the person on the other end is an American. 

Multiple audits and prior reports have shown that the FBI has misused Section 702 in the past to search for data on Americans involved in Black Lives Matter protests and the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot, among other incidents.

However, defenders of the surveillance tool, including the intelligence community and its allies, said it is critical to prevent another 9/11-style terror attack.

Disagreements over warrant requirements have continued to drive a wedge between national security hawks and an unusual coalition of hardliners on the left and right who argue the federal government has abused its access to private citizens’ data.

Davidson’s bill is also backed by Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, as well as House Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash.

The American Library Association (ALA), the oldest and largest library nonprofit in the world, claimed that the ‘censorship’ of sexually explicit books in children’s libraries is discriminatory to the LGBTQ+ community.

‘In looking at the titles of the most challenged books from last year, it’s obvious that the pressure groups are targeting books about LGBTQIA+ people and people of color,’ ALA President Emily Drabinski said in a statement Monday. ‘At ALA, we are fighting for the freedom to choose what you want to read. Shining a light on the harmful workings of these pressure groups is one of the actions we must take to protect our right to read.’

The group, which sponsors National Library Week in the second week of April every year, identified the top 10 most ‘banned’ books from children’s libraries — all of which were removed for purportedly some sort of sexually explicit content. The association also pioneered the Unite Against Book Bans’ Book Résumé. 

According to ALA, the number of books ‘targeted for censorship’ rose 65% in 2023 compared to the year before, making it the highest recorded number of bans, the group claims.

‘Gender Queer,’ by Maia Kobabe, ‘All Boys Aren’t Blue,’ by George M. Johnson, ‘This Book is Gay,’ by Juno Dawson and ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower,’ by Stephen Chbosky were among the list of most-banned books in public libraries last year for having LGBTQIA+ and sexually explicit content.

‘These are books that contain the ideas, the opinions, and the voices that censors want to silence – stories by and about LGBTQ+ persons and people of color,’ ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom director Deborah Caldwell-Stone said. ‘Each challenge, each demand to censor these books is an attack on our freedom to read, our right to live the life we choose, and an attack on libraries as community institutions that reflect the rich diversity of our nation.’

Last year, during a Senate Judiciary Hearing on book bans last year, Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., read an excerpt from Johnson’s ‘All Boys Aren’t Blue,’ which has been banned in more than two dozen school districts. 

‘I put some lube on and got him on his knees, and I began to slide into him from behind,’ Kennedy read from the book, which is a memoir of Johnson’s life. ‘I pulled out of him and kissed him while he masturbated.’

At the time, a college activist defended the book, arguing that if students cannot read books like ‘All Boys Aren’t Blue,’ then ‘they cannot learn about abuse.’

‘Gender Queer’ has also been banned in school districts in a few states, including Florida and Texas. The author previously told the Washington Post in an interview that she ‘originally wrote it for my parents, and then for older teens who were already asking these questions about themselves.’

‘I don’t recommend this book for kids!’ Kobabe told the outlet.

In July 2021, ALA adopted a new code of ethics built upon ‘racial and social justice’ ‘to foster cultural understanding by providing library professionals with a professional framework that supports equity, diversity, and inclusion.’ The association also has an advocacy arm that lobbies in Congress to advance ‘key policies’ and represents ‘the voice for libraries in Washington, D.C.’

Last year, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a bill making it the first state in the nation to outlaw book bans.

More than 50 people were arrested Tuesday after the Senate cafeteria was shut down by anti-Israel protesters chanting ‘Senate can’t eat until Gaza eats!’

The U.S. Capitol Police confirmed to Fox News that those arrested inside the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C., were charged with Crowding, Obstructing, or Incommoding.

‘It is illegal to demonstrate inside any of the Congressional Buildings,’ Capitol Police said in a statement. 

A video obtained by Fox News shows demonstrators walking through the hallways of the building, raising their hands and saying, ‘Children are starving in Gaza’ and ‘People are dying in Gaza.’

One woman was wearing a shirt that read, ‘Biden’s legacy = Genocide.’

President Biden has come under pressure over the growing civilian death toll from the Israel-Hamas war, which began on Oct. 7 last year when the Gaza-based terrorist group launched a surprise attack on Israel.

A source told Fox News that Capitol Police at one point shouted, ‘Everybody out or be placed under arrest,’ to which a protester replied, ‘This is the house of the people!’

Some of the demonstrators appeared to be the same individuals who interrupted testimony by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing this morning.

In March, more than a dozen pro-Palestinian demonstrators were arrested at the Russell Senate Office Building.

The pro-Palestinian demonstrators were heard repeatedly chanting, ‘We call for a permanent cease-fire,’ in the rotunda of the government building, which is connected to the U.S. Capitol.

In February, the U.S. Capitol Police arrested numerous pro-Palestinian demonstrators who staged a die-in alongside a banner with the message ‘cease-fire now’ inside the rotunda of the Cannon House Office Building.

Fox News’ Chad Pergram, Kelly Phares, Aishah Hasnie and Sarah Rumpf-Whitten contributed to this report.

The White House on Tuesday downplayed remarks President Biden made earlier in the day in which he seemed to suggest that House Republicans were essentially ‘killing millions of Americans’ by slashing the Affordable Care Act. 

The president spoke at an event at the nation’s capital earlier on Tuesday, touting government spending on childcare and other investments. 

During his speech, the president took a shot at House Republicans over their budget proposals which ‘cut care giving programs by a third.’ 

‘It would mean 260,000 fewer kids in childcare,’ Biden said before accusing former President Trump and his ‘MAGA friends’ of wanting to ‘terminate the Affordable Care Act.’ 

‘Terminate it – well, guess what? – killing millions of Americans, take them off of healthcare insurance. It’s stripping others of services like homecare folks,’ Biden said. 

Later, Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich pressed White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on whether the president meant ‘to essentially accuse Republicans of murder.’ 

Jean-Pierre shot back that Heinrich was taking the most ‘extreme evaluation of what the president said.’ When Heinrich noted the president’s language was ‘stronger than usual,’ Jean-Pierre again said she was ‘taking what [Biden] said to the most extreme part of your definition.’ 

The White House press secretary slammed Republicans for voting to repeal affordable healthcare ‘when it is saving people’s lives.’

‘Why do they do that? Do they not want Americans to have… affordable health care to protect themselves, to save their lives? That’s the question to be asked. The president’s trying to do the right thing. He’s trying to be where majority of Americans are and protect our health care, protect their Medicare,’ Jean-Pierre said. 

Last month, the Biden-Harris campaign accused former President Trump of threatening ‘political violence’ after Trump, while speaking about the auto industry at a rally in Ohio, suggested there will be a ‘bloodbath’ if he doesn’t win in the upcoming election in November. 

Trump had been talking about China and how ‘they think that they are going to sell’ cars manufactured in Mexico to the U.S. ‘with no tax at the border.’ 

After getting flak for the comment, Trump doubled down, using the word ‘bloodbath’ again several weeks later at a campaign event to criticize Biden’s border policies.  

Fox News Digital’s Greg Norman contributed to this report.