Biden Praises Schumer Comments on Netanyahu as ‘Good Speech’: He Addressed ‘Serious Concern Shared…by Many Americans’

President Joe Biden responded on Friday to the controversial speech given by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in which he called for Israel to hold elections and vote for an alternative to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, referring to Netanyahu as an “obstacle to peace” in the region.

During his meeting with the Prime Minister of Ireland Leo Varadkar, Biden took a question from the press about Schumer’s speech and said:

Senator Schumer contacted my staff, my senior staff that he was going to make that speech. And, he, I’m not going to elaborate on the speech. He made a good speech, and I think he expressed a serious concern shared not only by him, but by many Americans.

Schumer stated in his speech on Thursday:

I have known Prime Minister Netanyahu for a long time. While we have vehemently disagreed on many occasions, I will always respect his extraordinary bravery for Israel on the battlefield as a younger man. I believe in his heart his highest priority is the security of Israel. However, I also believe Prime Minister Netanyahu has lost his way by allowing his political survival to take precedence over the best interests of Israel.

The speech was met with harsh criticism from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who spoke out on the Senate floor immediately following Schumer:

It is grotesque and hypocritical for Americans who hyperventilate about foreign interference in our own democracy to call for the removal of a democratically elected leader of Israel. This is unprecedented. We should not treat fellow democracies this way at all.

Watch the video above via CNN.