Vice President Kamala Harris said the Biden-Harris administration does not deserve any praise for trying and failing to work out a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas in an interview with show host Stephen Colbert on Tuesday night.
Harris was pressed by "The Late Show" host to explain how close the administration has come to successfully brokering a peace deal in the Israel-Hamas war.
"We've been told that a cease-fire deal was very close several times," Colbert asked Harris. "What does that mean? What does ‘close’ mean?"
"Close means that a lot of the details had been worked out but details remained," Harris responded. "There has been some progress but it is meaningless unless a deal is actually reached."
CBS '60 MINUTES' AIRS TWO DIFFERENT ANSWERS FROM VP HARRIS TO THE SAME QUESTION
"I don't want to suggest to you that we should be applauded for getting close at times to a deal," Harris continued. "The reality of it is 1,200 people [were] massacred, there are still hostages being held in Gaza. I've met with the families of hostages both who are alive and who have died. I've met with families of Palestinians who have been killed, innocent people who have been killed in Gaza."
"There is pain, pain and suffering that is happening in that region of the world, and we must work, and the United States must work and not lose hope and not throw up our hands around the role we must play in urging and seeking and building toward a resolution," Harris said. "And the first thing that's going to unlock that is that we've got to get a deal done. And we're not going to give up."
Harris emphasized that hope was critical to a successful peace deal in the Middle East.
"We must always retain some level of faith in what is possible in terms of shining a light on a moment of darkness," she said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "accepted" the Biden administration's framework for a cease-fire with Hamas in August, but that effort has been stymied in the months since.
On October 1, Secretary of State Antony Blinken touted the Biden administration's "stronger" foreign policy, even as Iran launched a massive ballistic missile attack on Israel the same day.
The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
