WASHINGTON (AP) — At least three presidents. A vice president, a secretary of state, an attorney general. The mishandling of classified documents is not a problem unique to President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.

The matter of classified records and who, exactly, has hung onto them got more complicated Tuesday as news surfaced that former Vice President Mike Pence also had such records in his possession after he left office. Like Biden, Pence willingly turned them over to authorities after they were discovered during a search he requested, according to his lawyer and aides.

The revelations have thrust the issue of proper handling of documents — an otherwise low-key Washington process — into the middle of political discourse and laid bare an uncomfortable truth: Policies meant to control the handling of the nation’s secrets are haphazardly enforced among top officials and rely almost wholly on good faith.

It’s been a problem off and on for decades, from presidents to Cabinet members and staff across multiple administrations stretching as far back as Jimmy Carter. The issue has taken on greater significance since Trump willfully retained classified material at his Florida estate, prompting the unprecedented FBI seizure of thousands of pages of records last year.

It turns out former officials from all levels of government discover they are in possession of classified material and turn them over to the authorities at least several times a year, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of classified documents.

Current and former officials involved in the handling of classified information say that while there are clear policies for how such information should be reviewed and stored, those policies are sometimes pushed aside at the highest levels. Teams of national security officials, secretaries and military aides who share responsibility for keeping top-level executives informed — and the executives themselves — may bend the rules for convenience, expediency or sometimes due to carelessness.

It’s a contrast to the more rigid way the procedures are followed across the wider intelligence community, where mishandling information could be grounds for termination, a security clearance revocation or even prosecution.

“Executives go back and forth to their house with documents and read them. They read them at night, they bring them back,” said Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va. He contrasted that pattern for top officials to senators, who are required to retain classified materials in secure rooms at the Capitol.

“I can see how this happens,” he added. “But again, every situation is different. They are all very serious. So, how many? How serious? How did you get them? Who had access to them? Are you being cooperative? And the same set of questions has to be answered with respect to Pence and with President Biden and President Trump.”

As for the judiciary, a separate federal law, the Classified Information Procedures Act, governs the handling of material that comes before judges in criminal prosecutions and civil lawsuits. Another law deals with foreign intelligence investigations that come before a special court that operates in secrecy. Both laws are intended to guard against the disclosure of classified information.

While Trump intended to keep the documents — he’s argued, in apparent disregard of the Presidential Records Act, that they were his personal property — he was hardly the first president to mishandle classified information.

Former President Jimmy Carter found classified materials at his home in Plains, Georgia, on at least one occasion and returned them to the National Archives, according to the same person who spoke of regular occurrences of mishandled documents. The person did not provide details on the timing of the discovery.

An aide to the Carter Center provided no details when asked about that account of Carter discovering documents at his home after leaving office in 1981. It’s notable that Carter signed the Presidential Records Act in 1978 but it did not apply to records of his administration, taking effect years later when Ronald Reagan was inaugurated. Before Reagan, presidential records were generally considered the private property of the president individually. Nonetheless, Carter invited federal archivists to assist his White House in organizing his records in preparation for their eventual repository at his presidential library in Georgia.

The National Archives declined to comment when asked to provide a list of times that classified documents were turned over to the agency by former officials.

Meanwhile, other former senior U.S. officials have insisted they have always appropriately handled classified materials. A spokesman for former Vice President Dick Cheney said he didn’t leave office with classified materials and none have been discovered at any point since. Freddy Ford, a spokesman for former President George W. Bush, told The Associated Press that “all presidential records — classified and unclassified — were turned over to NARA upon leaving the White House,” referring to the National Archives and Records Administration.

A spokesperson for President Barack Obama didn’t comment but pointed to a 2022 statement from the National Archives that the agency took control of all of Obama’s records after he left office and was “not aware of any missing boxes of Presidential records from the Obama administration.” Former President Bill Clinton’s office said, “All of President Clinton’s classified materials were properly turned over to NARA in accordance with the Presidential Records Act.”

The closing days of any presidency are chaotic, as aides sort through years of their bosses’ accumulated materials to determine what must be turned over to the archives and what may be retained. Different teams of individuals are responsible for clearing different offices and maintaining consistent standards can prove challenging, officials said.

In Pence’s case, the material found in the boxes came mostly from his official residence at the Naval Observatory, where packing was handled by military aides rather than staff lawyers. Other material came from a West Wing office drawer, according to a Pence aide who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the discovery. The boxes were taped shut and were not believed to have been opened since they were packed, the person said.

There have also been accusations of mishandled documents while officials were still on the job. Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales took home highly sensitive documents that dealt with the National Security Agency’s terrorist surveillance program and the terrorist detainee interrogation program in the late 2000s. Hillary Clinton was investigated for mishandling classified information via a private email server she used as secretary of state.

But rarely are officials punished for these mistakes. That’s in large part because, while federal law does not allow anyone to store classified documents in an unauthorized location, it’s only a prosecutable crime when someone is found to have “knowingly” removed the documents from a proper place.

Mishandled documents are often returned with little fanfare or national news coverage. And there is no one reason for why records are mishandled, as the process of presidential records management plays out amid the chaos at the end of a presidential term and is based mostly a good-faith agreement between the archives and the outgoing administration.

“The National Archives has historically worked under an honor system with any administration,” said Tim Naftali, the first director of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. “They work for the president and the vice president and they have partnerships with all these former presidents and vice presidents.”

The White House counsel’s office declined to comment Tuesday on whether Biden would order a review of how classified documents are handled across the government in response to the latest discoveries.

The power to change or amend how classified documents are handled rests largely with the president. Biden, who is actively under investigation, is not likely to instigate a review or order any changes in procedure because it could be seen as a political move meant to better his own circumstances.

___

Associated Press writers Bill Barrow, Mark Sherman, Kevin Freking and Eric Tucker contributed to this report.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and his allies hope big recent wins on climate, health care and more will at least temporarily tamp down questions among top Democrats about whether he will run for reelection.

That optimism may be short lived, at risk if and when former President Donald Trump announces another White House campaign. But for now, the “Will he or won’t he” Washington parlor game appears to be on hold.

“I think the naysayers are pretty quiet right now,” said former Democratic Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe. “I think they’ve seen reality.”

In just the past several weeks, Biden has signed into law a climate and prescription-drug package that accomplishes many of his party’s long-held objectives; Congress has sent him bills that impose strict limits on guns and set out a plan to boost U.S. high-tech manufacturing. A drone strike killed al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri, average gasoline prices have fallen back below $4 per gallon and there are signs that inflation — while still white-hot — may finally be cooling.

All that has eased a debate over Biden’s future that was spreading. Fellow Democrats running for reelection were struggling to answer whether America’s oldest president should seek another term. But now they have a fresh agenda they can campaign on heading into the November midterms.

The president has increased his Democratic fundraising efforts, and next week in Maryland he’s holding his first rally for the party of the fall campaign season. He also plans to travel aggressively to boost candidates.

As a former senator, Biden knows some lawmakers may need to create distance from him to best win their races — but also that others could benefit from joint appearances. Aides say Biden may prove most useful amplifying Democrat-championed issues that are broadly popular, like lowering prescription drug costs and protecting abortion rights.

Cedric Richmond, one of Biden’s closest White House advisers before leaving for a senior Democratic National Committee job, said he wasn’t sure the spate of positive news would put an end to 2024 questions, “but it should.”

For “tried and true Democrats, the answer was a simple, ‘Yes, he should run. Yes he’ll be our nominee. Yes he’ll win.’”

But comments like that don’t make the news, said Richmond, a former Louisiana congressman. “So the only story was when somebody waffles or blows the question.”

Those have included New York Democratic Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Jerry Nadler both declining during a recent primary debate to say if Biden should seek a second term. In a subsequent statement, Maloney said she’d support Biden “if he decides to run,” then drew still more scrutiny while appearing on CNN by imploring Biden: “I want you to run. I happen to think you won’t be running.”

Not all lingering doubt can be attributed to awkward answers, though.

Swing-district Minnesota Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips said he didn’t want Biden to run in 2024. West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, whose about-face revived the climate and prescription drug legislation, has refused to say if he’d support a second Biden term. Stars of the progressive left, like New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, have similarly been noncommittal.

But Biden hasn’t been abandoned. Prominent Democrats, including New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, chair of the House Democratic Caucus, openly praise him during campaign appearances. In an interview, Jeffries ticked off the president’s recent wins and included administration successes going back to last year’s infrastructure spending and stimulus spending packages, as well as ongoing COVID-19 vaccination efforts.

“If someone were to say that a president had a record of accomplishment that I just described, without putting a time frame on it, the logical response would be: That person had a successful two-term presidency,” Jeffries said.

Still, other Democrats say a few positive headlines won’t be enough.

“Biden will have good and bad weeks in the news, but the fundamentals remain adverse,” said Norman Solomon, national director of RootsAction.org. His progressive activist organization, already frequently critical of the president, has launched a “Don’t Run Joe” effort.

Solomon wants Biden to announce he’s not running, freeing him to take bigger political risks and achieve a more successful one-term presidency. He suggested that White House advisers who worry about making Biden a lame duck are engaging in a “significant degree of whistling past the political graveyard.”

White House allies stress that the 2024 decision will ultimately be Biden’s alone. He’s on track to follow a similar timeline to former President Barack Obama, who declared for 2012 reelection in April 2011, aides say.

No modern incumbent president has faced such hesitation within his own party, nor been realistically threatened in a primary. Intra-party challengers, if they emerge, could weaken both the president and his party.

Some Biden observers see the president, who came out of political retirement because he believed himself best able to take on Trump in 2020, as less likely to seek reelection if his predecessor ultimately opts not to run.

If Biden runs, he’ll have to level with voters about his age — convincing them he’s really up for a second term that wouldn’t end until he’d be 86. Still, Richmond said such discussions could actually help Biden.

“I’m not going to let people, all of a sudden, say wisdom and experience is a bad thing,” he said. “The president of the United States, leader of the free world, that’s exactly what you want.”

While Biden’s age is unprecedented — so, too, would Trump’s at 82 — there’s almost as little tradition of presidents not seeking reelection after just four years in office. The last one was Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880.

Texas Democratic state Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a civil rights attorney expected to win an open House seat in Dallas, said if Biden “decides he wants to run, we’ve got to unite behind that.” But she also said the president hasn’t fought to preserve voting rights aggressively enough.

“From a public standpoint, especially when it comes to Black folks, it was not taken too kindly that they did not see or hear more coming from the president,” Crockett said. “If Black people come out and vote, Democrats win. If Black people stay at home, Democrats lose.”

Biden insisted last month that Democrats “want me to run.” But a Quinnipiac University poll in July found that only 24% of Americans overall, and 40% of Democrats, said that. The president’s approval rating has dropped below 40% for two straight months.

For positive reinforcement, Biden could look to a president at the opposite end of the political spectrum: Ronald Reagan, who took office in 1981 at age 69, making him the country’s then-oldest president.

With inflation spiking by the fall of his second year, a Washington Post-ABC News poll found that 6 in 10 Americans said Reagan shouldn’t run again, and his approval ratings sank to 35% by the following January. The next year, Reagan romped to reelection, winning every state but Minnesota and the District of Columbia.

McAuliffe, who was beaten in his bid to reclaim the governorship last November by Republican Glenn Youngkin despite Biden having carried Virginia by 10 points the previous year, said the president and Democrats have already seized momentum and “age doesn’t matter.”

“He’s at the top of his game. And this party, which a year ago was in disarray, and different elements of our party fighting one another,” McAuliffe said. “Now you’ve got a party that is united, fired up and legislative accomplishments that every American has wanted for many years.”

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WASHINGTON (AP) — On restoring access to abortion, President Joe Biden says his hands are tied without more Democratic senators. Declaring a public health emergency on the matter has downsides, his aides say. And as for gun violence, Biden has been clear about the limits of what he can do on his own.

“There’s a Constitution,” Biden said from the South Lawn in late May. “I can’t dictate this stuff.”

Throughout this century, presidents have often pushed aggressively to extend the boundaries of executive power. Biden talks more about its limits.

When it comes to the thorniest issues confronting his administration, the instinct from Biden and his White House is often to speak about what he cannot do, citing constraints imposed by the courts or insufficient support in a Congress controlled by his own party — though barely.

He injects a heavy dose of reality in speaking to an increasingly restive Democratic base, which has demanded action on issues such as abortion and voting rights before the November elections.

White House officials and the president’s allies say that approach typifies a leader who has always promised to be honest with Americans, including about how expansive his powers really are.

But Biden’s realpolitik tendencies are colliding with an activist base agitating for a more aggressive party leader — both in tone and substance. Although candidate Biden sold himself as the person who best knew the ways of Washington, he nonetheless is hamstrung by the same obstacles that have bedeviled his predecessors.

“I think that if you hesitate from important actions like this just because of a legal challenge, then you would do nothing,” said Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., who has been pressing for more administrative actions on abortion. “People all across the country are expecting us — the leaders — to do something.”

Biden’s cautionary approach could be to protect himself if the White House falls short — like Democrats did in negotiating a party-line spending package centered on the social safety net and climate provisions. That sweeping effort had been steadily thwarted due to resistance from two moderate Democrats, one of them West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, who on Thursday scuttled for the time being a scaled-back effort that focused on climate and taxes.

That development prompted calls from Democratic senators for Biden to unilaterally declare a climate emergency. In a statement Friday while in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Biden pledged to take “strong executive action to meet this moment” on climate. But in recent weeks, that gap between “yes, we can” and “no, we can’t” has been most glaring on abortion.

Since the Supreme Court last month overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling from 1973 with its constitutional protections for abortion, the White House has come under considerable pressure to try to maintain access to abortion in conservative states that are set to outlaw the procedure.

For instance, advocates have implored Biden to look into establishing abortion clinics on federal lands. They have asked the administration to help transport women seeking abortions to a state that offers the procedure. And Democratic lawmakers are pressing the White House to declare a public health emergency.

Without rejecting the ideas completely, White House aides have expressed skepticism about such requests. And even as he signed an executive order last week to begin addressing the issue, Biden had one clear, consistent message: that he could not do this on his own, shifting attention to the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.

“The only way we can secure a woman’s right to choose and the balance that existed is for Congress to restore the protections of Roe v. Wade as federal law,” Biden said shortly after the court struck down Roe. “No executive action from the president can do that.”

Shortly after declaring that the filibuster — a Senate rule that requires 60 votes for most legislation to advance — should not apply for abortion and privacy measures, Biden acknowledged during a meeting with Democratic governors that his newfound position would not make a difference, at least not right away.

“The filibuster should not stand in the way of us being able to do that,” Biden said of writing the protections of Roe into federal law. “But right now, we don’t have the votes in the Senate to change the filibuster.”

Biden, who served for 36 years in the Senate, is an institutionalist to his core and has tried to operate under the constraints of those institutions — unlike his predecessor, Donald Trump, who repeatedly pushed the boundaries of executive power.

But some advocates don’t want to hear from Biden about what he can’t do.

Renee Bracey Sherman, founder and executive director of the group We Testify, which advocates for women who have had abortions, said the administration should proceed with a public health emergency even if it’s eventually blocked by the courts.

“It tells those people who need abortions that the president is trying to help them, and that the thing that’s stopping him is the court, not himself, or his own projections on what could possibly happen,” she said, later adding: “The fact that he’s an institutionalist and cannot look around and see the institutions around him are crumbling is the problem.”

Democratic lawmakers have also continued to prod senior administration officials behind the scenes. In a virtual meeting this past week, Chu urged Xavier Becerra, the health and human services secretary, to have the administration enact a public health emergency. Proponents of the idea say it would unlock certain powers and resources to not only expand access to abortion but to protect doctors who provide them.

Though Becerra did not rule out the idea, he told Chu and other members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus that the administration had two main questions: How would the administration replenish money for the public health emergency fund and what would this move actually accomplish?

The skepticism has not deterred Democratic lawmakers. But some of the most ardent proponents of expansive executive actions on abortion have similarly cautioned their voters and activists to be realistic.

“It’s unrealistic to think that they have the power and the authority to protect access to abortion services in every part of this country because of what the Supreme Court has done,” said Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn.

In one sense, the recent success on gun s was a validation of Biden’s art-of-the-possible approach, advocates say. Rather than promising what he could not achieve, Biden instead spoke of his limitations and cautioned that any substantive changes would require the support of at least 10 Senate Republicans — a goal that seemed implausible at the start.

That culminated this past week with a ceremony marking the signing of the first substantial gun restrictions into law in roughly three decades.

“I think that the president has struck the absolute right balance,” said John Feinblatt, the president of Everytown for Gun Safety.

Concerns about the limitations on Biden’s executive powers aren’t mere hypotheticals. His administration’s efforts to tame the coronavirus pandemic, for example, were repeatedly foiled by the courts, including a requirement to wear masks on mass transit and a vaccination mandate for companies with at least 100 workers.

Then-President Barack Obama sounded similar warnings when confronted by immigration activists urging him to use his power to issue a deportation reprieve for millions of young immigrants who did not have legal status in the U.S.

Obama in 2012 unilaterally enacted the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which is still standing today. Two years later, Obama more fully embraced the pen-and-phone strategy, signaling to Congress that he would not hesitate to use executive orders if lawmakers continued to imperil his domestic agenda.

“Nobody thinks he’s got a magic wand here. Folks understand there are limitations,” said Leah Greenberg, co-founder and co-executive director of the Indivisible Project. “What they want to see is him treating this like the crisis it is for folks in red states losing access to abortion.”

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JERUSALEM (AP) — U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid stood side-by-side Thursday and declared they would not allow Iran to become a nuclear power. They parted ways, though, on how to get there.

Biden, in a joint news conference after a one-on-one meeting with the Israeli leader, said he still wants to give diplomacy a chance. Moments earlier, Lapid insisted that words alone won’t thwart Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.

While Biden suggested his patience with Iran was running low, he held out hope that Iran can be persuaded to rejoin a dormant deal intended to prevent it from building a nuclear weapon.

“I continue to believe that diplomacy is the best way to achieve this outcome,” Biden said on the second day of a four-day visit to Israel and Saudi Arabia. It’s his first trip to the Middle East as president.

Biden’s emphasis on a diplomatic solution contrasted with Lapid, who said Iran must face a real threat of force before it will agree to give up on its nuclear ambitions.

“Words will not stop them, Mr. President. Diplomacy will not stop them,” Lapid said. “The only thing that will stop Iran is knowing that if they continue to develop their nuclear program the free world will use force.”

Lapid suggested that he and Biden were in agreement, despite his tougher rhetoric toward Iran.

“I don’t think there’s a light between us,” he said. “We cannot allow Iran to become nuclear.”

Biden, too, said, “We will not, let me say it again, we will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon.”

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi lashed out at the U.S. and “its regional allies” for stoking instability in the region, state-run IRNA news agency reported.

“Any mistake by the Americans and their allies in the region and the world will be met with a harsh and regrettable response,” Raisi said.

Biden warned that his patience is wearing thin for Iran to rejoin the nuclear deal, a day after saying he’d be willing to use force against Tehran as a last resort. The president said the U.S. had laid out for the Iranian leadership a path to return to the nuclear deal and was still waiting for a response.

“When that will come, I’m not certain,” Biden said. “But we’re not going to wait forever.”

Resurrecting the Iran nuclear deal brokered by Barack Obama’s administration and abandoned by Donald Trump in 2018 was a key priority for Biden as he entered office. But administration officials have become increasingly pessimistic about the chances of getting Tehran back into compliance.

Israeli officials have sought to use Biden’s first visit to the Middle East as president to underscore that Iran’s nuclear program has progressed too far and encourage the Biden administration to scuttle efforts to revive the deal.

Israel opposed the original nuclear deal because its limitations on Iran’s nuclear enrichment would expire and the agreement didn’t address Iran’s ballistic missile program or military activities in the region.

Instead of the U.S. reentering the deal, Israel would prefer strict sanctions in hopes of leading to a more sweeping accord.

The one-on-one talks between Biden and Lapid marked the centerpiece of a 48-hour visit by Biden aimed at strengthening already tight relations between the U.S and Israel. The leaders issued a joint declaration emphasizing military cooperation and a commitment to keeping Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

In the joint statement, the United States said it is ready to use “all elements of its national power” to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb.

Iran announced last week that it has enriched uranium to 60% purity, a technical step away from weapons-grade quality.

The joint declaration could hold important symbolic importance for Biden’s upcoming meeting with Arab leaders in Saudi Arabia as he seeks to strengthen a regionwide alliance against Iran.

The U.S. president, who is set to arrive in Saudi Arabia on Friday, said he also stressed to Lapid the importance of Israel becoming “totally integrated” in the region.

Israel during the Trump administration signed on to the Abraham Accords, declarations of diplomatic and economic normalization signed by Israel, Bahrain, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates that were signature foreign policy achievement for the Republican president. For Israel to come to such an agreement with the Saudis, an economic and Islamic epicenter in the Mideast, would be even more significant.

Lapid asked Biden to deliver a message on behalf of Israel to the Arab leaders he’ll meet with in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia: “Our hand is outstretched for peace.”

“Your visit to Saudi Arabia is important for Israel and for the region,” Lapid added. “For our security and for the future prosperity of the Middle East.”

The president will visit Saudi Arabia after calling the kingdom a “pariah” nation as a presidential candidate and releasing a U.S. intelligence finding last year that showed the kingdom’s de facto leader, Mohammed bin Salman, likely approved the 2018 killing of of Jamal Khashoggi, a U.S.-based writer.

Biden declined to commit to mentioning Khashoggi’s murder when he meets with the crown prince.

“I always bring up human rights,” Biden said at the news conference. “But my position on Khashoggi has been so clear. If anyone doesn’t understand it, in Saudi Arabia or anywhere else, then they haven’t been around for a while.” He did not reiterate his position.

Thursday’s appearances with Lapid could provide a boost to Israeli prime minister, who is serving in an interim capacity until elections in November, the fifth in less than four years. His main opponent is former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Lapid’s joint appearance with Biden could help burnish his credentials as a statesman and leader. Biden met briefly behind closed doors with Netanyahu, with whom who he’s had a rocky relationship.

Biden didn’t mention Israel’s upcoming election during the public portion of Thursday’s meeting with Lapid, but told reporters “we had a good beginning of a long, God willing, relationship.”

Biden and Lapid also participated in a virtual summit with India and the United Arab Emirates, a collection of countries called the I2U2. The United Arab Emirates announced it will help finance a $2 billion project supporting agriculture in India.

The president was also honored with Israel’s top civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Honor, from President Isaac Herzog.

Biden finished his day with a stop at Jerusalem’s Teddy Stadium to greet U.S. athletes competing in the Maccabiah Games. Also known as the “Jewish Olympics,” it’s the country’s largest sporting event and held every four years for Israeli and Jewish athletes from all over world.

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JERUSALEM (AP) — President Joe Biden on Wednesday opened his first visit to the Mideast since taking office by offering anxious Israeli leaders strong reassurances of his determination to stop Iran’s growing nuclear program, saying he’d be willing to use force as a “last resort.”

The president’s comments came in an interview with Israel’s Channel 12 taped before he left Washington and broadcast Wednesday, hours after the country’s political leaders welcomed him with a red-carpet arrival ceremony at the Tel Aviv airport.

“The only thing worse than the Iran that exists now is an Iran with nuclear weapons,” Biden said. Asked about using military force against Iran, Biden said, “If that was the last resort, yes.”

U.S. ally Israel considers Iran to be its greatest enemy, citing its nuclear program, its calls for Israel’s destruction and its support for hostile militant groups across the region.

The U.S. and Israel are expected Thursday to unveil a joint declaration cementing their close military ties and strengthening past calls to take military action to halt Iran’s nuclear program. A senior Israeli official said before Biden arrived that both countries would commit to “using all elements of their national power against the Iranian nuclear threat.” The official spoke on condition of anonymity pending the formal release of the statement.

Israeli leaders made clear as they marked Biden’s arrival that Iran’s nuclear program was the top item on their agenda.

“We will discuss the need to renew a strong global coalition that will stop the Iranian nuclear program,” said Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, as he greeted the Democratic president at the airport ceremony in Tel Aviv.

Biden said he would not remove Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from the U.S. list of terrorist organizations, even if that kept Iran from rejoining the Iran nuclear deal.

Sanctions on the IRGC, which has carried out regional attacks, have been a sticking point in negotiations to bring Iran back into compliance with the agreement meant to keep it from having a nuclear weapon. Iran announced last week that it has enriched uranium to 60% purity, a technical step away from weapons-grade quality.

Iran insists its program is for peaceful purposes, though United Nations experts and Western intelligence agencies say Iran had an organized military nuclear program through 2003.

Biden’s visit to Israel follows the collapse of a coalition-led government headed by Naftali Bennett. The president was greeted by Lapid, the caretaker prime minister who is hoping to hang on to power when Israelis hold their fifth election in three years this fall.

Lapid reminded Biden of when they first met roughly eight years earlier. Biden was vice president and Lapid was finance minister.

“You said to me, ‘If only I had hair like yours, I would be president’ to which I answered, ’And if only I had your height, I would be Prime Minister,” Lapid said.

Biden made reviving the Iran nuclear deal, brokered by Barack Obama in 2015 and abandoned by Donald Trump in 2018, a key priority as he entered office. Biden said Trump made a “gigantic mistake” by withdrawing the U.S. from the Iran nuclear deal.

“There are those who thought with the last administration we sort of walked away from the Middle East, that we were going to create a vacuum that China and or Russia would fill, and we can’t let that happen,” he said.

But indirect talks for the U.S. to reenter the deal have stalled as Iran has made rapid gains in developing its nuclear program. That’s left the Biden administration increasingly pessimistic about resurrecting the deal, which placed significant restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

At the airport, Israeli President Isaac Herzog thanked Biden for championing Israel during his more than 50 years in public office. He then reminded the U.S. president of the “security challenges emanating directly from Iran and its proxies, threatening Israel and its neighbors and endangering our region.”

Israelis seemed determined to underscore the imminent threat from Iran. Soon after he arrived, Biden was briefed on the country’s “Iron Dome” and new “Iron Beam” missile defense systems.

The president later visited the Yad Vashem memorial to Holocaust victims in Jerusalem.

Biden, wearing a skullcap, was invited to rekindle the eternal flame in the memorial’s Hall of Remembrance. Two Marines placed a wreath on the stone crypt containing the ashes of Holocaust victims and Biden listened as a cantor recited the remembrance prayer.

He then greeted two Holocaust survivors, kissing the women on their cheeks. His eyes welled with tears as he chatted with them.

“My mother would say ’God love you, dear,’” Biden told the women.

One of the survivors, Rena Quint, 86, later said she told Biden how her mother and brothers were killed in a death camp. Quint, who was born in Poland, said she was reunited with her father in a male slave labor factory, where she pretended to be a boy. Her father also was murdered. She later was adopted by a childless Jewish couple after she arrived in the United States in 1946.

“Did you see the president hug me?” she asked “He asked permission to kiss me and he kept on holding my hand and we were told not to touch him.”

Biden is set to meet Thursday with Israeli officials, including Lapid, Herzog and opposition leader and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He’ll meet Friday Friday with Palestinian officials.

Biden said he will emphasize in talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders his continued support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but acknowledged that outcome likely wouldn’t be feasible “in the near term.”

He maintained that a two-state solution is the best way to ensure a “future of equal measure of freedom, prosperity and democracy for Israelis and Palestinians alike.” His national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said Biden would not offer any proposals during the trip aimed at restarting talks.

The White House has also been frustrated with repeated Iran-sponsored attacks on U.S. troops based in Iraq, though the administration says the frequency of such attacks has dropped precipitously over the last two years. Tehran also backs the rebel Houthis in a bloody war with the Saudis in Yemen. A U.N.-brokered cease-fire has been in place for more than four months, a fragile peace in a war that began in 2015.

Sullivan said this week that the administration believes Russia is turning to Iran to provide it with hundreds of unmanned aerial vehicles, including weapons-capable drones, for use in its ongoing war in Ukraine. Sullivan said Wednesday that Iranians showing a willingness to assist Russia is something that should be of great concern to the Israelis, Saudis and other Gulf allies that Biden will be meeting with this week.

“We think that this is of interest, to put it mildly, to countries we will be visiting on this trip,” Sullivan said.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Last Fourth of July, President Joe Biden gathered hundreds of people outside the White House for an event that would have been unthinkable for many Americans the previous year. With the coronavirus in retreat, they ate hamburgers and watched fireworks over the National Mall.

Although the pandemic wasn’t over yet, Biden said, “we’re closer than ever to declaring our independence from a deadly virus.” Across the country, indoor masking requirements were falling as the number of infections and deaths plummeted.

Within weeks, even some of the president’s allies privately admitted that the speech had been premature. Soon the administration would learn that the delta variant could be transmitted by people who had already been vaccinated. Masks went back on, then came polarizing vaccination mandates. The even-more-contagious omicron variant would arrive months later, infecting millions and causing chaos during the holiday season.

“We were hoping to be free of the virus, and the virus had a lot more in store for us,” said Joshua Sharfstein, vice dean of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The number of people in the United States who died from COVID-19 nearly doubled, from 605,000 to more than 1 million, over the past year.

That sunny speech one year ago marked a crossroads for Biden’s presidency. The pandemic appeared to be waning, the economy was booming, inflation wasn’t rising as quickly as today and public approval of his job performance was solid.

As Biden approaches his second Fourth of July in the White House, his standing couldn’t be more different. A series of miscalculations and unforeseen challenges have Biden struggling for footing as he faces a potentially damaging verdict from voters in the upcoming midterm elections. Even problems that weren’t Biden’s fault have been fuel for Republican efforts to retake control of Congress.

The pandemic’s resurgence was swiftly followed last summer by the debacle of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, when the Taliban seized control of the country faster than the administration expected as the U.S.-backed regime collapsed. Then, negotiations over Biden’s broader domestic agenda stalled, only to collapse altogether in December.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine in late February caused a worldwide spike in gas prices, exacerbating inflation that reached a 40-year high. Another blow came last month, when the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion under Roe v. Wade and curtailed the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

Suddenly a reactive president, Biden has been left trying to reclaim the initiative at every step, often with mixed results. The coronavirus is less of a threat than before and infections are far less likely to lead to death, but Congress is refusing to supply more money to deal with the pandemic.

He signed new gun restrictions into law after massacres in New York and Texas, and he’s leading a reinvestment in European security as the war in Ukraine enters its fifth month. But he has limited tools at his disposal to deal with other challenges, such as rising costs and eroding access to abortion.

“People are grouchy,” said Lindsay Chervinsky, a presidential historian.

The latest poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that his approval rating remains at 39%, the lowest since taking office and a steep slide from 59% one year ago. Only 14% of Americans believe the country is headed in the right direction, down from 44%.

Douglas Brinkley, another historian, said Biden suffered from a case of presidential hubris after a largely successful run in his first five months in office, which included an overseas trip to meet with allies excited about welcoming a friendly face back to the international scene. He compared Biden’s Fourth of July speech last year to President George W. Bush’s infamous “Mission Accomplished” moment during the second Iraq War.

“He was trying to deliver good news but it didn’t pan out for him,” Brinkley said. “Suddenly, Biden lost a lot of goodwill.”

White House officials reject the comparison, noting that Biden warned about the “powerful” delta variant in his 2021 speech. Chris Meagher, a spokesman, said deaths from the virus are at a record low now, reducing disruptions in workplaces and classrooms.

“Fighting inflation and lowering prices is the president’s number one economic priority, and he’s laser focused on doing everything he can to make sure the economy is working for the American people,” he said. “And we’re in a strong position to transition from our historic jobs recovery to stable and steady growth. Because of the work we’ve done to bring the pandemic under control, COVID is not the disruptive factor it has been for so long.”

The promise to competently address the COVID-19 pandemic is what helped put Biden in the Oval Office and send President Donald Trump to defeat. From the start of Biden’s tenure, his public pronouncements were sober and cautious, wary of following his predecessor in predictions that went unfulfilled. The nation’s vaccination program found its stride under Biden, and by April 19, 2021, all adults were eligible to be vaccinated.

Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, was an adviser to Biden’s transition team. But as the Fourth of July approached last year, he was worried and felt that the administration wasn’t heeding his warnings.

“Everyone was in this position of wanting to believe it was over with, and not fully understanding or appreciating the potential of the variants,” he said.

Even now, a full year later, Osterholm is reluctant to say what the future holds.

“I want answers too,” he said. “But I don’t know what the variants are going to bring us. I don’t know what human immunity is going to look like.”

Biden said the virus “has not been vanquished” in his Fourth of July speech, and he held another event two days later to talk about the delta variant.

“It seems to me that it should cause everybody to think twice,” he said as he appealed to people who had not yet been vaccinated.

Leana Wen, a public health professor at George Washington University, said there’s more reason to be optimistic this year than last. Immunity from vaccines or previous infections is much more widespread, and antiviral treatments are effective at preventing hospitalization and death in vulnerable patients.

“It was premature to declare independence from COVID-19 last year,” she said. “But this year the country is in a totally different place, and in a much better place.”

But Wen said Biden might be wary, given how things went before.

“The administration is hesitant to make those proclamations now, when actually this is the time to do so,” she said.

Biden’s early strategy of underpromising and overdelivering on COVID-19 was part of a concerted strategy to rebuild the public’s trust in government. The resurgence of the virus eroded some of that trust and diminished confidence in Biden’s job performance.

Rebuilding that has proved difficult, especially as the country faces challenges, some, frustratingly for Biden, outside of his control.

“We expect the president to be all powerful and be able to fix every problem,” said Chervinsky, the presidential historian. “It’s a completely unrealistic expectation and, frankly, a dangerous one.”

President Bill Clinton stumbled through his first two years in office, then faced a wave of Republican victories in his first midterm elections. But he later became the first Democratic president to be reelected since Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Chervinsky cautioned that today’s political polarization could make such a rebound more difficult for Biden.

A key question, she said: “Is our partisan system so inflexible that it won’t allow for him to go back?”

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Wednesday called on Congress to suspend federal gasoline and diesel taxes for three months — an election-year move meant to ease financial pressures that was greeted with doubts by many lawmakers.

The Democratic president also called on states to suspend their own gas taxes or provide similar relief, and he delivered a public critique of the energy industry for prioritizing profits over production. It would take action by lawmakers in Washington and in statehouses across the country to actually bring relief to consumers.

“It doesn’t reduce all the pain but it will be a big help,” Biden said, using the bully pulpit when his administration believes it has run out of direct levers to address soaring gas prices. “I’m doing my part. I want Congress, states and industry to do their part as well.”

At issue is the 18.4 cents-a-gallon federal tax on gas and the 24.4 cents-a-gallon federal tax on diesel fuel. If the gas savings were fully passed along to consumers, people would save roughly 3.6% at the pump when prices are averaging about $5 a gallon nationwide.

Biden’s push faces uphill odds in Congress, which must act in order to suspend the tax, and where many lawmakers, including some in his own party, have expressed reservations. Even many economists view the idea of a gas tax holiday with skepticism.

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi offered a noncommittal response to Biden’s proposal, saying she would look to see if there was support for it in Congress.

“We will see where the consensus lies on a path forward for the president’s proposal in the House and the Senate,” Pelosi said.

Unlikely to pass a gas tax holiday through the 50-50 Senate, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said Wednesday that Democrats will focus instead on their bill to crack down on oil companies “manipulating the market” for higher prices and profits. “We’re going to focus on that issue,” Schumer said.

In his speech, Biden tied higher energy prices to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and said, “defending freedom, defending democracy was not going to go without cost for the American people and the rest of the free world.” The president noted that lawmakers backed sanctions against Russia and aiding Ukraine despite the risks of inflation from resulting energy and food shortages.

Democrats, Republicans and independents in Congress chose to support Ukraine, “knowing full well the cost,” he said.

“So for all those Republicans in Congress criticizing me today for high gas prices in America: Are you now saying you were wrong to support Ukraine?” Biden said. “Are you saying that we would rather have lower gas prices in America than (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s iron fist in Europe? I don’t believe that. ”

The president said “states are now in a strong position to be able to afford to take some of these actions,” thanks to federal support from the 2021 COVID-19 relief bill. But there is no guarantee that states will tap into their budgets to suspend their taxes on gas or to deliver rebates to consumers, as Biden is requesting.

Barack Obama, during the 2008 presidential campaign, called the idea of a gas tax holiday a “gimmick” that allowed politicians to “say that they did something.” He also warned that oil companies could offset the tax relief by increasing their prices.

The administration is saying that gas tax suspensions at the federal and state levels as well as energy companies pouring their profits into production and refining capacity could cut gas prices by $1 a gallon.

High gas prices pose a fundamental threat to Biden’s electoral and policy ambitions. They’ve caused confidence in the economy to slump to lows that bode poorly for defending Democratic control of the House and the Senate in November.

Biden’s past efforts to cut gas prices — including the release of oil from the U.S. strategic reserve and greater ethanol blending this summer — have not delivered savings at the pump, a risk that carries over to the idea of a gas tax holiday.

The president can do remarkably little to fix prices that are set by global markets, profit-driven companies, consumer demand and aftershocks from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the embargoes that followed. The underlying problem is a shortage of oil and refineries that produce gas, a challenge a tax holiday cannot necessarily fix.

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, estimated that the majority of the 8.6% inflation seen over the past 12 months in the U.S. comes from higher commodity prices due to Russia’s invasion and continued disruptions from the coronavirus.

“In the immediate near term, it is critical to stem the increase in oil prices,” Zandi said last week, suggesting that Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and a nuclear deal with Iran could help to boost supplies and lower prices. Republican lawmakers have tried to shift more blame to Biden, saying he created a hostile environment for domestic oil producers, causing their output to stay below pre-pandemic levels.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell mocked the gas tax holiday as an “ineffective stunt” in a Wednesday floor speech. “This ineffective administration’s big new idea is a silly proposal that senior members of their own party have already shot down well in advance,” he said.

Rep. Peter DeFazio, the Democratic chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said he would not support suspending the gas tax. “I’m going to be working against it. I have the largest committee in Congress, so we’ll see.”

DeFazio said a better course would be to tax oil companies on “windfall profits.”

Administration officials said the $10 billion cost of the gas tax holiday would be paid for and the Highway Trust Fund kept whole, even though the gas taxes make up a substantial source of revenue for the fund. The officials did not specify any new revenue sources.

The president has also called on energy companies to accept lower profit margins to increase oil production and refining capacity for gasoline.

This has increased tensions with oil producers: Biden has judged the companies to be making “more money than God.” That kicked off a chain of events in which the head of Chevron, Michael Wirth, sent a letter to the White House saying that the administration “has largely sought to criticize, and at times vilify, our industry.”

Asked about the letter, Biden said of Wirth: “He’s mildly sensitive. I didn’t know they’d get their feelings hurt that quickly.”

Energy companies are scheduled to meet Thursday with Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm to discuss ways to increase supply.

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REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. (AP) — President Joe Biden said Monday that he will decide by the end of the week whether he would support a federal gasoline tax holiday, possibly saving U.S. consumers as much as 18.4 cents a gallon.

“Yes, I’m considering it,” Biden told reporters after taking a walk along the beach near his vacation home in Delaware. “I hope to have a decision based on the data — I’m looking for by the end of the week.”

The administration is increasingly looking for ways to spare the public from higher prices at the pump, which began to climb last year and surged after Russia invaded Ukraine in February. Gas prices nationwide are averaging just under $5 a gallon, according to AAA.

Biden said members of his team were to meet this week with CEOs of the major oil companies to discuss rising prices. Biden lashed out at oil companies, saying they are making excessive profits when people are feeling the crunch of skyrocketing costs at the pump and inflation. But Biden said he would not be meeting the oil executives himself.

“I want an explanation for why they aren’t refining more oil,” Biden said.

The Biden administration has already released oil from the U.S. strategic reserve and increased ethanol blending for the summer, in additional to sending a letter last week to oil refiners urging them to increase their refining capacity. Yet those efforts have yet to reduce price pressures meaningfully, such that the administration is now considering a gas tax holiday. Taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel help to pay for highways.

The Penn Wharton Budget Model released estimates Wednesday showing that consumers saved at the pump because of gas tax holidays in Connecticut, Georgia and Maryland. The majority of the savings went to consumers, instead of service stations and others in the energy sector.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm in a Sunday interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” cautioned that “part of the challenge with the gas tax, of course, is that it funds the roads.”

But Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Monday noted “consumers are really hurting from higher gas prices” and remained open to a gas tax holiday.

“It’s been a substantial burden on American households and I think, while not perfect, it is something that should be under some consideration as a policy to address it,” Yellen said in Toronto at a joint press conference Monday with Canadian Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland.

A gas tax holiday would likely face an uphill climb for Congressional approval. Democrats hold a slim majority, and both Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have expressed skepticism in the past about such a move.

A White House official, insisting on anonymity to discuss the options on gas prices, said conversations are ongoing and Biden wants to explore all possibilities to lower prices.

Oil refiners say their ability to produce additional gas and diesel fuel is limited, meaning that prices could remain high unless demand starts to wane.

The American Petroleum Institute and American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers sent a joint letter to Biden on Wednesday that said refineries are operating near their maximum capacity already and nearly half of the capacity taken off line was due to the facilities converting to renewable fuel production.

“Today’s situation did not materialize overnight and will not be quickly solved,” the letter said. “To protect and foster U.S. energy security and refining capacity, we urge to you to take steps to encourage more domestic energy production,” including new infrastructure and reducing regulatory burdens.

Strolling on the beach with his daughter Ashley, granddaughter Naomi, and his granddaughter’s fiancé, Biden stopped frequently to chat with beachgoers who were spending the Juneteenth federal holiday at the beach.

He took a moment to offer assurances about inflation — the consumer-price index increased to a nearly 40-year high of 8.6% in May from the same month a year ago — and growing warnings from economists that a recession may be around the corner.

“We’re going to get though this, guys,” Biden told one group of beachgoers.

Last week, the Federal Reserve stepped up its drive to tame inflation by raising its key interest rate by three-quarters of a point — its largest increase in nearly three decades — and signaled more large rate increases to come.

Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that in his estimation, “the dominant probability would be that by the end of next year we would be seeing a recession in the American economy.”

Biden said he spoke with Summers, who served as treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, on Monday morning.

“There’s nothing inevitable about a recession,” Biden said.

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SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — President Joe Biden said Saturday he was escalating federal assistance for New Mexico as it faces its largest wildfire in recorded state history.

The fire began with prescribed burns that were set by the U.S. Forest Service, a standard practice that’s intended to clear out combustible underbrush. However, the burns spread out of control, destroying hundreds of homes across 500 square miles (1,300 square kilometers) since early April, according to federal officials.

“We need to be sure this doesn’t happen again,” Biden said during a visit to an emergency operations center in Santa Fe, where he met with local, state and federal officials. He was returning to Washington from Los Angeles, where he had attended the Summit of the Americas.

The president said the federal government would cover the full cost of the emergency response and debris removal, a responsibility that was previously shared with the state government.

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham told Biden that “your administration has leaned in from the very beginning” and that “we need the federal government to keep accepting responsibility.”

Biden said he also supports having Washington foot the bill for damages caused by the fire, but such a step would require congressional action.

Evidence of New Mexico’s struggle with wildfire was visible from Air Force One as the president’s plane approached. There were plumes of smoke in the distance, and rows of burned trees looked like blackened scars slashing through green forests.

Evacuations have displaced thousands of residents from rural villages with Spanish-colonial roots and high poverty rates, while causing untold environmental damage. Fear of flames is giving way to concern about erosion and mudslides in places where superheated fire penetrated soil and roots.

The blaze is the latest reminder of Biden’s concern about wildfires, which are expected to worsen as climate change continues, and how they will strain resources needed to fight them.

“These fires are blinking ‘code red’ for our nation,” Biden said last year after stops in Idaho and California. “They’re gaining frequency and ferocity.”

But the source of the current wildfire in New Mexico has also sparked outrage here.

A group of Mora County residents sued the U.S. Forest Service this past week in an effort to obtain more information about the government’s role.

The Forest Service sets roughly 4,500 prescribed burns each year nationwide, and Biden said the practice has been put on hold during an investigation.

Ralph Arellanes of Las Vegas, New Mexico, said many ranchers of modest means appear unlikely to receive compensation for uninsured cabins, barns and sheds that were razed by the fire.

“They’ve got their day job and their ranch and farm life. It’s not like they have a big old house or hacienda — it could be a very basic home, may or may not have running water,” said Arellanes, a former wildland firefighter and chairman for a confederation of Hispanic community advocacy groups. “They use it to stay there to feed and water the cattle on the weekend. Or maybe they have a camper. But a lot of that got burned.”

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has approved at least 900 disaster relief claims worth more than $3 million for individuals and households.

On Thursday, the Biden administration extended eligible financial relief to the repair of water facilities, irrigation ditches, bridges and roads. Proposed legislation from U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, D-N.M., would offer full compensation for nearly all lost property and income linked to the wildfire.

Jennifer Carbajal says she evacuated twice from the impending wildfire at a shared family home at Pandaries in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The house survived while about 50 neighboring homes burned along with the tanks that feed the municipal water system, leaving no local supply of potable water without truck deliveries.

“There is no long-term plan right now for water infrastructure in northern New Mexico,” Carbajal said.

She said matters are worse in many hardscrabble communities across fire-scarred Mora County, where the median household income is roughly $28,000 — less than half the national average.

“They barter a lot and really have never had to rely on external resources,” she said. “The whole idea of applying for a loan (from FEMA) is an immediate turnoff for the majority of that population.”

Jaclyn Rothenberg, a spokeswoman for FEMA, said the agency had more than 400 personnel in the state to work with residents and help them seek federal assistance.

George Fernandez of Las Vegas, New Mexico, says his family is unlikely to be compensated for an uninsured, fire-gutted house in the remote Mineral Hills area, nor a companion cabin that was built by his grandparents nearly a century ago.

Fernandez said his brother had moved away from the house to a nursing home before the fire swept through — making direct federal compensation unlikely under current rules because the house was no longer a primary residence.

“I think they should make accommodations for everybody who lost whatever they lost at face value,” Fernandez said. “It would take a lot of money to accomplish that, but it was something they started and I think they should.”

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden delivered an emotional call for new restrictions on firearms after a gunman opened fire at a Texas elementary school on Tuesday.

“When in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby?” Biden said at the White House shortly after returning from a five-day trip to Asia that was bookended by tragedy.

With first lady Jill Biden standing by his side in the Roosevelt Room, Biden added, “I am sick and tired. We have to act.”

At least 18 students were killed, according to a state senator who said he was briefed by law enforcement, in addition to a teacher.

Just two days before Biden left on his trip, he met with victims’ families after a hate-motivated shooter killed 10 Black people at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York.

The back-to-back tragedies served as sobering reminders of the frequency and brutality of an American epidemic of mass gun violence.

“These kinds of mass shootings rarely happen anywhere else in the world,” Biden said. “Why?”

He directed that American flags be flown at half-staff through sunset Saturday in honor of the victims in Texas.

Vice President Kamala Harris said earlier that people normally declare in moments like this, “our hearts break — but our hearts keep getting broken … and our broken hearts are nothing compared to the broken hearts of those families.”

“We have to have the courage to take action … to ensure something like this never happens again,” she said.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden was briefed on the shooting by deputy chief of staff Jen O’Malley-Dillon and other members of his senior team aboard Air Force One.

Shortly before landing in Washington, Biden spoke with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott from the presidential plane “to offer any and all assistance he needs in the wake of the horrific shooting in Uvalde, TX,” White House communications director Kate Bedingfield tweeted.

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