Biden to deliver Oval Office speech Thursday about Israel-Hamas war and Ukraine

President Biden will address the nation from the Oval Office on Thursday, delivering remarks on Israel’s war against Hamas terrorists and the situation in Ukraine, the White House announced Wednesday. 

The 8 p.m. speech will mark only the second time during his presidency that Biden, 80, will speak to the country from behind the Resolute Desk at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. 

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement that the speech will “discuss our response to Hamas’ terrorist attacks against Israel and Russia’s ongoing brutal war against Ukraine.”

Biden’s first prime-time Oval Office address was back in June, during which the president celebrated the passage of legislation raising the federal debt ceiling until January 2025 — telling Americans the country had narrowly avoided “economic collapse.”

Biden has kept a low media profile throughout his presidency, interacting with the press far less than many of his predecessors. 

The most recent data compiled by political scientist Martha Kumar, and provided to the Washington Post on Tuesday, shows that Biden has only done 74 interviews with media outlets.

By comparison, former President Donald Trump had done 273 interviews by the same point in his presidency and former President Barack Obama had done 381 interviews. 

Former Presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan had all done more interviews than Biden by this point in their time in office, according to Kumar’s analysis. 

Biden’s 30 press conferences are also a stingy number compared to past presidents, and the fewest since Reagan’s 19. 

Trump had participated in 52 press conferences by this point in his presidency, Obama had done 59, George W. Bush had done 62, Clinton was at 102 and George H.W. Bush had completed 105 of them, according to Kumar.  

Biden’s preferred method of interacting with the press appears to be when he his on the move, during informal gaggles with reporters, of which Biden had done 492 – that’s less than Trump’s 521 gaggles, but far more than Obama’s 88 at this point in his presidency. 

The president’s Oval Office speech Thursday will come one day after his visit to Israel, where he announced that the US would provide $100 million in humanitarian aid for the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and said that he plans to ask Congress for an “unprecedented” military aid package for the Jewish state.