Forget this as evidence of moral rot in the White House, which it clearly represents. Consider this just as an indicator of political competence. Joe Biden has claimed to have American hostages as his highest priority in the Hamas war on Israel, even though he did nothing to guarantee their release in the deal he claimed credit for brokering.

What better way to demonstrate Biden’s vaunted empathy than to embrace those hostage families during the White House Hanukkah event?

Instead, not only did Biden and his team neglect to invite them, they ignored the families’ requests to attend the Hanukkah event. CNN’s MJ Lee broke the story yesterday evening:

Several family members of US citizens believed to have been taken hostage by Hamas had asked to attend a Hanukkah reception at the White House Monday night but never received invitations, the father of a 19-year-old missing Israeli American told CNN.

Ruby Chen, whose son Itay is a reservist missing since the militant group’s October 7 attacks on Israel, said a number of the families of American hostages were in Washington, DC, this week, and had reached out to the White House asking to attend the reception but were not invited.

A White House spokesperson declined to comment.

Lee reported this on air with Jake Tapper, who apparently couldn’t quite believe that this was a deliberate snub. The clip below cuts off Tapper’s introductory question, in which he asks Lee what happened:

Families of American Israeli hostages held captive in Gaza asked the White House for an invitation to a Hanukkah celebration.

Joe Biden's White House did not respond to the request. pic.twitter.com/oT7xd7Jqbn

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) December 11, 2023

TAPPER: This just in to CNN, several family members of American citizen hostages kidnapped and missing in Gaza had asked to attend a Hanukkah reception tonight at the White House, but reportedly never got invitations. Let’s go to CNN’s MJ Lee at the White House. MJ, what happened here? Is it too late for the White House to rectify the situation?

MJ LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I don’t think it’s too late because the reception hasn’t happened yet, but this is a Hanukkah reception that the White House is hosting tonight to celebrate the fifth night of Hanukkah hosted by the President and the First Lady. And what one of the family members of the families that have their family members that are missing in Gaza still believed to have been abducted by Hamas on October 7.

They told me that they had reached out to the White House because several of the families were in town this week, had asked for an invitation to this event, but that they ultimately did not get invited. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. Look, these are family members that are desperately trying to bring

attention to the fact that there are still eight dual American citizens that are still missing, that are still unaccounted for. Obviously, the formal negotiations to get more hostages out, we saw those break down earlier this month. So, there are a lot of questions right now and these families are very desperate for any kind of news, any kind of movement that they are seeing from the White House as well as the Israeli government on how their family members are going to get out. Jake?

TAPPER: We know that people at the White House watch this show. If they have any questions, reach out to us and we’ll involve MJ and we’ll fix this problem if it can be fixed.

This wasn’t a problem to be “rectified,” nor an oversight by staffers. This shouldn’t have even been in question. Any political operation of any competence would have thought to include the families of victims of genocidal terror attacks at a White House event that celebrates their own religion and history. The White House should have been begging these families to show up, and when they called to ask to participate, Biden and his team should have apologized for overlooking them in the first place and rolled out the red carpet.

Why didn’t that happen? Biden and his team don’t want to draw attention to the fact that Biden didn’t bother to prioritize the release of American hostages in the deal Biden took credit for brokering. The White House has acknowledged that Hamas holds a number of American hostages, and Biden keeps declaring they’re his highest priority, but only one got released, and even then in bonus exchanges rather than the exchanges Biden purportedly set up.

At the event last night, Biden apparently avoided discussing the American hostages while taking credit for freeing others:

Speaking at the event, President Joe Biden touted the work his administration has been doing to try to a secure the release of the remaining hostages and to get humanitarian aid into Gaza. He said he had spent “probably up to 20 hours” working with Israeli, Qatari and Egyptian counterparts on both fronts.

“There’s a whole range of things going on now that are really very, very difficult,” Biden said. “We’ve gotten more than 100 hostages out and we’re not going to stop till we get every one of them home.”

But what about the American hostages? Why didn’t Biden insist on getting Americans out in the deal Biden claims credit for crafting? Either he’s a complete incompetent — always a reliable answer when it comes to Biden — or he wanted American hostages to remain until the end of the exchanges to exert pressure on Israel. Either way, it’s yet another demonstration that Biden’s empathy is every bit as fabulist as his tellings of his personal history.

That’s why the White House snubbed the families of the American hostages. They would have reminded everyone of Biden’s failure to prioritize their release, and their presence would have made Biden’s lack of specific attention to them even more uncomfortable. The White House moral ‘fish’ rots from the head down.

Update: Looks like incompetence, although it could still be a significant portion of cravenness. The White House has now invited those families to meet with Biden, although not as part of Biden’s high-profile Hanukkah event:

NBC News: President Biden has invited family members of Americans held hostage to a meeting at The White House. It will be their first in person meeting since October 7th.

— Lauren Peikoff✡️ (@laurenpeikoff) December 12, 2023

Don’t expect much other than a readout later from the White House. I wonder what the families will have to say afterward, however.