Tipsheet

Here's What Biden Had to Say About Schumer's Election Interference in Israel

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  March 15, 2024 4:15 PM

As we've been covering, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) gave remarks from the Senate floor on Thursday in which he called for new elections to take place in Israel. He even claimed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has "lost his way" and is "an obstacle to peace" when it comes to his handling of the Israel-Hamas war after the October 7 terrorist attack that Hamas perpetrated against our ally in the Middle East. President Joe Biden, who has been facing issues with his far-left, anti-Israel base for what support he's dared to show Israel, expressed support for the speech when asked by reporters on Friday. 

"Senator Schumer, uh, contacted my staff, my senior staff he was going to make that speech, and uh, he uh, I'm not going to ex--elaborate on that speech, he made a good speech, and I think he, uh, expressed serious concerns shared not only by him, but by many Americans," Biden stated.

As reporters tried to shout more questions to the president, he sat there smiling while they were loudly escorted out by his handlers. 

Of course, it's not for Schumer, Biden, or any American to say what goes on in Israel's elections. Schumer was swiftly condemned for his attempt at election interference, which he and his fellow Democrats decry at home, as Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) pointed out in his response. It wasn't just Republicans who called Schumer out, but Israeli officials, and from all sides of the political aisle. This includes Netanyahu rival Benny Gantz, who met with Vice President Kamala Harris as well as Schumer as part of his unauthorized trip to the United States last week. 

Although it's not shocking that Biden wouldn't expand on the speech, and certainly not on how Schumer spoke to Biden's senior staff ahead of time, it is rather curious. 

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It's also telling that Biden made clear that he thought Schumer "made a good speech" in the presence of a foreign leader, Ireland's Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. 

Ireland has been the site of a rise in antisemitism following the October 7 terrorist attack, and Varadkar himself received heavy criticism for referring to one of the hostages, Emily Hand, an Irish-Israeli girl, as an "innocent child who was lost has now been found and returned."

Last November, less than a month after the attack, Reuters covered how Varadkar complained about how it appeared Israel was acting on "revenge," even after he acknowledged that Israel has a right to defend itself. "What I'm seeing unfolding at the moment isn't just self defence. It looks, resembles something more approaching revenge," Reuters quoted him as saying. "That's not where we should be. And I don't think that's how Israel will guarantee future freedom and future security."

In his remarks on Friday with Harris, Varadkar similarly touched upon "vengeance" when he said, "In Ireland, we know how quickly atrocities can lead to calls for vengeance, creating new cycles of hatred and bitterness.  But we also know that the cycle can be broken, and that new hope can replace old hatreds."

A report from CNN about this Friday visit also shows an emphasis on support for Palestinians, just as has been the focus from the Biden administration:

Leo Varadkar, Ireland’s Taoiseach or prime minister, voiced widely held Irish sympathies for Palestinians when he met with Biden in the Oval Office. While he rebuffed calls by some Irish politicians to boycott the annual White House stop, he made plain the Gaza war lends fresh urgency to this year’s talks.

“You know my view that we need to have a ceasefire as soon as possible, to get food and medicine in, hostages out, and we need to talk about how we can make that happen,” Varadkar said in the Oval Office, adding it was his view that a two-state solution was the only path to lasting peace and security in the Middle East. Biden said he agreed on both points.

Meeting over breakfast earlier Friday morning with Vice President Kamala Harris, Varadkar said the humanitarian crisis in Gaza “will haunt us all for years to come.” He said the Irish “know how quickly atrocities could lead to calls for vengeance, creating new cycles of hatred and bitterness.”

And he praised Harris’s forceful recent calls for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza, which he said “showed great courage.”

“I’m sure it can’t have been easy, but it was the right thing to do,” he said.

The president's post on Friday morning, from his official account, commemorated the International Day to Combat Islamophobia, which referenced in part "the ugly resurgence of Islamophobia following the war in Gaza."

Many chimed in with the thousands of replies and quoted reposts, including Rep. Bob Good (R-VA), who, like others, lamented the rise of antisemitism and also called out Schumer for his speech.

Biden must especially contend with angry voters in key swing states like Michigan. Specifically at hand here is the city of Dearborn, which has the the largest Muslim population in the country per capita and is included in Rep. Rashida Tlaib's district. The fellow Democrat has not been too thrilled with Biden. Not only did she support how over 101,000 voters selected "uncommitted" rather than vote for Biden in the Democratic Primary, but she also hasn't yet said if she'll support Biden come November.

"Dearborn" has even been trending on X as people speculate Biden is throwing Israel under the bus to win over such voters.

Polling currently shows former and potentially future President Donald Trump leading Biden in Michigan by +3.5.