Former Biden spokesperson admits Israel was committing war crimes, it just wasn’t his job to say so

In a recent interview, former Biden administration official Matthew Miller said he has no doubt that Israel has committed war crimes in Gaza.

Miller, who served as State Department spokesperson from 2023 until the end of Biden’s term, made the comments on Sky News’s Trump 100 podcast. Despite saying war crimes have taken place, Miller said he doesn’t believe that it’s a genocide.

“I don’t think it’s a genocide, but I think it is without a doubt true that Israel has committed war crimes,” Miller told Sky’s Mark Stone.

“There are two ways to think about the commission of war crimes,” he said later. “One is if the state has pursued a policy of deliberately committing war crimes or is acting recklessly in a way that aids and abets war crimes. Is the state committing war crimes?

“That, I think, is an open question,” he continued. “I think what is almost certainly not an open question is that there have been individual incidents that have been war crimes where Israeli soldiers, members of the Israeli military, have committed war crimes.”

As State Department spokesman, Miller was continually tasked with defending and Israeli war crimes.  “When you’re at the podium, you’re not expressing your personal opinion. You’re expressing the conclusions of the United States government,” Miller told Sky News. “The United States government had not concluded that they committed war crimes, still have not concluded [that].”

One such example of this alleged disconnect came in January 2024, when the AP’s Matt Lee questioned Miller about bombing of Al-Israa University, outside of Gaza City:

LEE: I mean, it looks like a controlled demolition. It looks like what we do here in this country when we’re taking down an old hotel or a stadium. And you have nothing to say? Nothing to say about this? I mean, to do that kind of an explosion, you need to be in there. You have to put the explosives down. And it takes a lot of planning and preparation to do. And if there was a threat from this particular facility, they wouldn’t have been able to do it.

MILLER: So, I have seen the video. I can tell you that it is something we are raising with the government of Israel, as we do often–

LEE: Well, raising as what?

MILLER: To ask questions and find out what the underlying situation is, as we often do when we see reports of this nature. But I’m not able to characterize the actual facts on the ground before hearing that.

LEE: Yeah, but you saw the video.

MILLER: I did see the video. I don’t know–

LEE: It looks like, you know, a bridge being imploded.

MILLER: I don’t know what was under that building. I don’t know what was inside–

LEE: Yeah, but it doesn’t matter what was under the building because they obviously got in there to put the explosives down to do it in a way that they did.

MILLER: Again, I’m glad you have factual certainty about it. I just, I just–

LEE: I don’t. All I have is what I saw in the video and I think you guys saw it too.

MILLER: We did see it and I can say that we have raised it with the government of Israel.

LEE: It’s not troubling to you?

MILLER: We are always troubled by the, by the, by any degradation of civilian infrastructure in Gaza. But without knowing the actual underlying circumstances, I’m a little hesitant, I think, for reasons that should be understandable to pass definitive judgment on it from this podium.

During the Sky News podcast, Miller continued to blame Hamas for the breakdown of ceasefire talks and seemed to imply that the group rejected a deal after being emboldened by Gaza protests within the United States. He also claimed that the administration debated cutting off weapon shipments to the apartheid state.

“It was clear to us in that period that there was a time when our public discussion of withholding weapons from Israel, as well as the protests on college campuses in the United States, and the movement of some European countries to recognize the state of Palestine – appropriate discussions, appropriate decisions – protests are appropriate – but all of those things together were leading the leadership of Hamas to conclude that they didn’t need to agree to a ceasefire, they just needed to hold out for a little bit longer, and they could get what they always wanted,” said Miller.

After the Sky interview aired, Miller was condemned by pro-Palestine accounts across social media over his complicity in the Gaza genocide.

“Matthew Miller without a doubt belongs in jail for the rest of his life,” said Electronic Intifada reporter Asa Winstanley.

“Matthew Miller still said that he doesn’t think it’s a genocide,” wrote activist Momodou Taal. “Hell isn’t hot enough.”

“Like other state officials, Matthew Miller was a staunch defender of Israel’s crimes in Gaza, framing and justifying policies that were widely condemned,” tweeted journalist Roqayah Chamseddine. He maintained an indifferent and dismissive demeanour, even in the face of mounting outrage, smirking his way through it all.”