‘Netanyahu is the Original Trump’: Morning Joe Guest Blasts Israeli PM As ‘Bad Actor,’ ‘Not Too Late’ To ‘Rescind’ Senate Address

Morning Joe guest and Financial Times U.S. commentator Ed Luce branded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “the original Trump” and said he was “puzzled” why Senate Majority Leader and Democrat Chuck Schumer would invite a “bad actor” to deliver an address to Congress.

Arguing it was not too late to withdraw the invite, Luce appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe panel on Thursday alongside Politico deputy managing editor Sam Stein and Retired U.S. Navy admiral James Stavridis.

During the conversation on foreign affairs, including Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un on Wednesday, the conversation rounded to tensions within the Biden administration over Netanyahu’s military campaign in Gaza and public accusations that the White House was withholding arms shipments.

Co-host Jonathan Lemire, also Politico’s White House bureau chief, addressed Luce about Netanyahu.

LEMIRE: To the admiral’s point, this seems like the prime minister going over the heads of the White House going directly to the American people. Well, in about a month’s time he’s got a bigger moment to do that. He’s been invited to address Congress. What do we think comes of that? This well could be a really contentious moment between the relationship between the prime minister and the president.”

LUCE: Yes, it could, and, of course, we all remember in 2015 when he addressed congress, broke all protocol and all preps didn’t by campaigning to the joint houses of Congress against President Obama’s Iran nuclear deal. At that point I think he really came out strongly as a Republican – a pro Republican foreign leader, which was a new one for American politics. And he’s now a pro-Trump foreign leader. Similar psychologies. Arguably, Netanyahu is the original Trump and both have similar incentives not to lose the next election because both face potential jail time. So Netanyahu is a bad actor, he has bitten the hand that feeds him again and again and again.

LEMIRE: Yes.

LUCE: Biden has supplied everything that he needed. There is no business, by the way, for that delayed shipment of 2,000-pound bombs. There is no business for 2,000-pound bombs in urban warfare. It’s indiscriminate. There are bombs that go around corners and go through windows and can target people, so I’m really puzzled as to why people like Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer signed on to Netanyahu speaking, and I don’t think it’s too late to rescind that invitation.

Watch above on MSNBC.