PBS Correspondent Issues Apology for Comments About Trump Interference in Gaza Ceasefire Talks

Senior PBS correspondent Judy Woodruff issued an official apology Wednesday afternoon in response to growing outrage about her viral comments on former President Donald Trump’s role in the Gaza ceasefire talks. 

Woodruff claimed Trump has urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reject the recent hostage deal proposal until after the U.S. election in a bid to sabotage Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign. 

“One thing the Harris campaign would love is if President [Joe] Biden would bring home a ceasefire right now between Gaza and Israel, and we know that Secretary of State [Antony] Blinken is over there right now working with Netanyahu,” Woodruff said during a live broadcast at the Democratic National Convention on Monday night. 

“The reporting is that former President Trump is on the phone with the Prime Minister of Israel, urging him not to cut a deal right now, because it’s believed that would help the Harris campaign,” she continued. “So, I don’t know — who knows whether that will come about or not, but I have to think that the Harris campaign would like for President Biden to do what presidents do, which is work on that one.”

On Wednesday, The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office fired back, telling The Jerusalem Post that Woodruff’s statements are a “complete lie.” 

Her comments come amid last week’s reports from Axios and Reuters of conversations between Trump and Netanyahu. 

Sources for Axios claimed Trump encouraged Netanyahu to take a ceasefire deal via a phone call on August 14. By the following day, the Israeli Prime Minister’s office had released a statement that there was no such discussion between Trump and Netanyahu. 

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, August 15, Trump told reporters he’d encouraged Netanyahu to end the war, but he criticized the terms of the proposed ceasefire. 

“He knows what he’s doing, I did encourage him to get this over with,” Trump said. “It has to get over with fast — get your victory and get it over with. It has to stop, the killing has to stop.”

At a rally later that day, he added, “From the start, Harris has worked to tie Israel’s hand behind its back, demanding an immediate ceasefire, always demanding ceasefire,” which he said “would only give Hamas time to regroup and launch a new October 7 style attack.”

Since Woodruff’s statements at the DNC, many commentators on X, formerly Twitter, have encouraged an investigation into Trump, claiming any such call encouraging Netanyahu to delay a ceasefire deal could be a violation of the Logan Act, a law enacted in 1799 that makes it illegal for private citizens to negotiate on behalf of the U.S. with foreign governments.

“I want to clarify my remarks on the PBS News special on Monday night about the ongoing ceasefire talks in the Middle East,” Woodruff posted to her account Wednesday afternoon. “As I said, this was not based on my original reporting; I was referring to reports I had read, in Axios and Reuters, about former President Trump having spoken to the Israeli Prime Minister. In the live TV moment, I repeated the story because I hadn’t seen later reporting that both sides denied it. This was a mistake, and I apologize for it.”