The head of the agency that oversees the federal government’s workforce plans to step down in the coming weeks, she said in an interview with POLITICO. Office of Personnel Management Director Kiran Ahuja said she plans to depart in early May to deal with an ongoing health concern and following a recent death in the family. “I was, from the day of being nominated, very intent on wanting to serve the president well through this term, and that was a commitment that I had made,” Ahuja said. “But I think at times, as they say, life intervenes.” She added that she is not leaving for a position outsi ..read more

The White House announced on Monday it would oppose a bill to fund Israel security if it did not include the president’s requests for aid to Taiwan and Ukraine. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby threw cold water on House Speaker Mike Johnson’s plan to introduce a stand-alone bill funding Israel following the attacks from Iran over the weekend, saying it would not get President Joe Biden’s backing. “We would oppose a stand-alone bill that would just work on Israel,” said Kirby. The comments provide a clear signal to congressional Democrats that they should vote against the measu ..read more

President Joe Biden deliberately kept a low public profile following Iran's attacks against Israel over the weekend, hoping that his absence from the spotlight would help deescalate the situation. White House aides on Sunday discussed the idea of Biden delivering a national address after Israel, in conjunction with U.S. forces, shot down the vast majority of the 300 drone and missile launches from Iran forces seeking to avenge the killing of senior paramilitary leaders. But while scheduling was fluid, there were no immediate plans for Biden to address an American audience on the conflict in th ..read more

The Biden administration’s main message for Israel following Iran’s aerial assault comes down to this: Stop and think. U.S. officials expect Israel to respond in some fashion to Saturday’s strikes, but in both public and private ways they are taking steps they hope will convince Israel to choose a limited response as opposed to an all-out armed counter-attack. The latter, they fear, will plunge the region into a major war. President Joe Biden in particular wants to avoid any battle that could drag in U.S. troops, and he’s made that clear to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “We’re adv ..read more

Democrats are far more likely to say President Joe Biden needs to be harder on Israel than to say he’s pushed the Middle East ally too hard, according to a POLITICO-Morning Consult poll published Sunday. All told, 33 percent of Democratic voters felt the president was “not tough enough on Israel" during the Gaza conflict while just 8 percent said he was being “too tough.” Taken together, those two groups were roughly equal in size to the 42 percentage of Democratic voters who said his approach was “just right.” The numbers, which were part of a comprehensive examination of voter attitudes towa ..read more

President Joe Biden cut short a weekend trip to his Delaware beach home to return to the White House where he will monitor events in the Middle East. The White House announced Saturday that Biden would be leaving Rehoboth Beach a day earlier than planned in order to consult with his national security team. The administration has been on high alert for a possible retaliatory attack from Iran or its proxies after an Israeli strike killed a senior Iranian officer at an embassy in Syria. White House officials did not say if something specific prompted Biden to change his travel plans. U.S. officia ..read more

The Biden administration is moving to expand background checks for gun purchases, fulfilling a key demand of advocates following the deadly shooting at a school in Uvalde, Texas. The final rule, expected to be submitted Thursday to the Federal Register by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, would eliminate a loophole that has allowed sales of guns without background checks of guns outside of brick-and-mortar stores. The rule was issued under a provision of the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. It requires that anyone who sells guns for profit to have a license and that buyers be ..read more

President Joe Biden has long wanted the spotlight on Beijing as the Big Bad of global politics. But his meetings with Asian leaders at the White House this week are serving as a reminder of how much China has taken second billing to crises in Europe and the Middle East. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s state visit was center stage Wednesday, a powerful symbol of the decadeslong allies’ team up against China. He met with Biden in the Oval Office to discuss military, economic and space-related matters before addressing reporters. Both leaders will then sit down for a state dinner. But jus ..read more

President Joe Biden called Israel’s conduct of the war a “mistake” and urged the quick adoption of a six-to-eight week cease-fire with Hamas. The comments, in an interview with Univision that aired Tuesday, underscored the increasingly chilly nature of the relationship between the president and his counterpart, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. They come in the wake of the killing of seven aid workers by the Israeli Defense Forces — including an American — and as the United States has strongly signaled it will begin using its leverage to push for Israel to alter its approach to the wa ..read more

NEW YORK — A Florida mother was sentenced Tuesday to a month in prison and three months of home confinement for stealing and selling President Joe Biden’s daughter’s diary four years ago to the conservative group Project Veritas. Aimee Harris was sentenced in Manhattan federal court by Judge Laura Taylor Swain, who called the Palm Beach, Florida, woman’s actions “despicable.” Harris pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in August 2022, admitting that she received $20,000 of the $40,000 that was paid by Project Veritas for personal items belonging to the president’s daughter, Ashley Biden. Proj ..read more