Biden caught on hot mic at State of the Union revealing his ‘come to Jesus’ chat with Netanyahu

President Joe Biden’s fiery State of the Union remarks continued off the podium on Friday night after a hot mic caught him speaking about Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu.

“I told him, Bibi — and don’t repeat this — but you and I are going to have a ‘come to Jesus’ meeting,” Mr Biden said while shaking hands after his address, in footage caught on C-SPAN.

His words came after a top Israeli minister and political rival of Mr Netanyahu visited Washington DC last week for a series of meetings with the president and Vice President Kamala Harris that drew criticism from the Israeli prime minister.

During his high-stakes address, Mr Biden announced the US military would establish a temporary pier on the Gaza coast for aid. Moments later, he also criticised Israel’s actions in Gaza, calling for the Israeli government to allow more aid to flow to Palestinians.

“To the leadership of Israel, I say this: Humanitarian assistance cannot be a secondary consideration or a bargaining chip,” he said.

Mr Biden has faced increasing criticism for his response to the Israel-Hamas conflict. Most notably, more than 100,000 voters in the Michigan Democratic presidential primary cast their ballots as “uncommitted” last week in a protest vote against Mr Biden for giving political and financial support to Israel’s war in Gaza.

Meanwhile, just hours before the State of the Union, former Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy told The Independent that, given the number of civilians killed in Gaza, the Biden administration has broken US foreign aid laws by providing Israel with aid.

The United Nations warned last month that some 576,000 people, or one-quarter of Gaza’s population, are “one step away from famine”. It has also accused Israel of “systematically” blocking aid deliveries into Gaza and of opening fire on convoys that do make it through.

Since 7 October — when Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel, killing at least 1,200 people and taking around 200 hostages — at least 30,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s attacks on Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Intimaa Salama, a woman born and raised in Gaza, attended the State of the Union as the guest of Representative Cori Bush. In the three months since the campaign on Gaza began, 35 members of Ms Salama’s family have been killed – and she learned of yet another friend’s death as she walked through the US Capitol on Thursday night, HuffPost reports.

“I feel like I need to do this. I need to be here,” Ms Salama told the outlet. “I’m doing it for my family and for my people, who need an immediate and permanent cease-fire.”

Mr Biden, for his part, did not call for a permanent cease-fire during his address — instead, he told the American public about his work calling for an “immediate ceasefire that would last for at least six weeks”.