As President Joe Biden and his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, headlined a star-studded fundraiser with former President Bill Clinton, offering a robust defence of the White House’s handling of the Gaza crisis — protesters interrupted the event, Reuters reports.

“It’s a lonely seat,” Obama said. “One of the realities of the presidency is that the world has a lot of joy and beauty, but it also has a lot of tragedy and cruelty.”

People “understandably, oftentimes, want to feel a certain purity in terms of how those decisions are made,” he said. “But a president doesn’t have that luxury.”

When a protestor inside the theatre interrupted Obama, the former president snapped back: You can’t just talk and not listen…That’s what the other side does.“

The pair of former presidents also defended Biden’s handling of the economy, which gets low ratings in national polls. Clinton said Biden’s economic numbers have significantly outpaced Trump’s administration.