‘Disgraceful Legacy!’ MSNBC’s Chris Hayes Condemns Biden For Handing Israel a ‘Blank Check’ and ‘Doing Untold Damage’ to International Order

MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes slammed President Joe Biden for “doing untold damage to the liberal international order” by funding Israel’s war in Gaza.

During a monologue on Friday night, Hayes argued that the 46th president is leaving behind a “disgraceful legacy” with his handling of the conflict. He also noted that Biden’s decision to not limit funding to Israel has given Trump a “blank check” as he enters office.

The MSNBC host also decried the administration for not applying the Leahy Laws — U.S. human rights laws that prohibit the government from providing aide to foreign militaries that have committed gross violations of human rights — to Israel.

Hayes cited remarks in a May 2024 op-ed from retired Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) who also criticized the administration for not applying the laws to Israel.

Hayes also cited the International Criminal Court’s indictment of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:

Even now, former Senator Pat Leahy, who’s no longer in the Senate, says Israel is getting a pass in violation of the spirit, if not the letter of the law he passed. “Beginning in the early 2000s, I wrote to successive secretaries of state about the failure to apply the Leahy law to Israel. The responses were either inconclusive or inaccurately claimed the law was being applied to Israel the same as to other countries, which the State Department continues to insist today.” Leahy added, “the State Department’s dismissive response not only beggars credulity, it also makes a mockery of the law.” This is Pat Leahy, liberal senator. Not a radical right, not a fringe voice in American politics. Someone who knows this issue. Who spent decades working on this issue and not just about Israel, but all kinds of American allies. And yet, here we are.

President Biden is going to hand a blank check for Israel over to the incoming Trump administration. I don’t think it’s coincidental that yesterday on Capitol Hill, the House overwhelmingly passed a bill to sanction officers of the International Criminal Court to punish them for moving to charge top Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with war crimes. Keep in mind, the ICC also indicted leaders of Hamas for their war crimes appropriately and their holding of Israeli hostages, which continues to this very day. And 45 Democrats joined all Republicans to support this bill. We know which vision of American global engagement the Trump administration will carry out. But it isn’t just Trump who this week is making an absolute mockery of every last lecture we deliver to the Russians or the Chinese or anyone else about respecting human rights and international law. It is President Joe Biden to leaving a disgraceful legacy. A liberal president doing untold damage to the liberal international order.

Watch the clip above via MSNBC.