US Domestic News Roundup: Biden makes contradictory comments on Gaza 'red line' in MSNBC interview; Trump says tariff impact could be offset by tax cuts, other action and more

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Biden makes contradictory comments on Gaza 'red line' in MSNBC interview

U.S. President Joe Biden said in an MSNBC interview on Saturday that Israel's threatened invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza would be his "red line" for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but then immediately backtracked, saying there was no red line and "I'm never going to leave Israel." In a somewhat contradictory exchange with his interviewer, Biden said "they cannot have 30,000 more Palestinians dead as a consequence of going after" Hamas militants.

Biden's 2024 US government budget is also a campaign pitch

President Joe Biden will sketch his fiscal vision for the United States on Monday, unveiling a spending wish list that is as much a election-year pitch to voters as a policy proposal.

Biden's budget for the fiscal year starting in October comes days after the Democrat's State of the Union address, where he sharply assailed the values of his likely Republican opponent in the November election, Donald Trump. Biden is traveling to the competitive election state of New Hampshire on Monday.

Trump says tariff impact could be offset by tax cuts, other action

Republican U.S. presidential candidate President Donald Trump on Monday defended his proposed 10% tariff, telling CNBC in an interview that any impact on families such as higher prices could be offset by tax cuts and other actions.

Trump, Biden trade salvos in Georgia face-off

A defiant and bitter Donald Trump returned on Saturday to the state where he faces criminal charges for undermining the 2020 U.S. presidential election, looking to win the battleground of Georgia as a stepping-stone to taking back the presidency. Trump was stumping in Georgia on the same day as President Joe Biden, who campaigned in nearby Atlanta, signifying the critical role the state will play in November's general election.

Biden's meager 1% US defense budget increase buys fewer ships, jets

President Joe Biden's overall U.S. defense and national security budget request expected on Monday will be just 1% higher than last year, forcing a slowdown in spending on a wide range of programs and delaying efforts to rebuild weapons stocks depleted by wars in Ukraine and Israel. The $895 billion national security budget request, which includes funds for homeland security as well as nuclear weapons-related activities carried out by the Department of Energy, is the result of a two-year budget deal struck in mid-2023 that limited the budget to a 1% increase.

Biden raises $10 million in 24 hours after his State of the Union speech

President Joe Biden's re-election campaign said on Sunday it raised $10 million in the 24 hours following a fiery State of the Union address, where he accused Donald Trump of threatening democracy and torpedoing a bill to tackle U.S. immigration woes. In a 68-minute address to Congress on Thursday, Biden also charged Trump, his Republican challenger in the Nov. 5 election, with burying the truth about the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol and bowing to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Enthusiasm wanes among Black voters who powered Biden's 2020 Georgia win

Much has changed since Wanda Mosley helped galvanize thousands of Black voters across the battleground state of Georgia to help clinch the 2020 general election for U.S. President Joe Biden. Excited to head to the polls then, some Black voters now feel disillusioned by a surge in the cost of living and racial justice priorities they feel Biden's Democrats have yet to deliver on as promised, polls and interviews show.

Judge blocks tighter Washington state oversight of immigration detention center

A federal judge blocked Washington state from enforcing most of a law intended to boost oversight and improve living conditions at the state's only privately run, for-profit immigration detention facility. Friday's preliminary injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle will benefit Geo Group, the owner of the Northwest Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Processing Center in Tacoma.

Biden regrets using "illegal" to describe immigrant in speech

U.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday said he regretted using the term "illegal" in a recent speech to describe an undocumented immigrant who allegedly murdered a student, which drew fire from Democrats and immigration advocates who see the word as dehumanizing. During his State of the Union address on Thursday, Biden was goaded by Trump-allied Republican U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and went off script to address the case of Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student from the U.S. state of Georgia, who was allegedly murdered last month by an undocumented immigrant who had been released on parole.

US senators seek to reallocate government spectrum to boost 5G networks

Two top Republican senators are introducing legislation on Monday that would require some U.S. government-owned spectrum be auctioned off to boost commercial wireless 5G networks. Congress in March 2023 let the Federal Communications Commission's authority to auction spectrum lapse for the first time in three decades amid debate about what spectrum used by the Defense Department could be repurposed or shared.