Clinton pollster blisters Schumer over Israel: 'Out of touch'

Former Clinton pollster Mark Penn sharply rebuked Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday after the New York Democrat called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a "major obstacle to peace" and called for the country to hold elections.

"I don’t think Schumer will do that again. He heard from pretty much the world and it’s clear that Schumer is out of touch with Israel or he would have known that telling Israelis what to do is likely to produce the opposite result," Penn wrote in an op-ed for Fox News.

Penn pointed out how Netanyahu said Schumer was "inappropriate" to tell an allied Democracy to hold elections and who to support, especially mid-war.

"Are Schumer and Biden genuinely motivated by the conditions in war-torn Gaza or by the politics of Michigan?" Penn asked.

Biden is behind former President Donald Trump in polls from the vital swing state, where more than 13% of Democratic primary voters cast their ballots for "uncommitted" following a movement to do so in response to Biden's handling of the conflict in Gaza. 

Penn said that two million people in Gaza have been dislocated after Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas invaded Israel and killed about 1,200 people and kidnapped 250 others, but while 11 million people in Haiti have been thrust under gang rule politicians have not said much about them, nor has aid been offered. 

"The administration agrees Hamas is an evil group but seems to have somehow bought into the idea that Netanyahu is at fault, as though any other country would do something different after an event on the scale of Pearl Harbor, which killed 68 civilians, or 9/11, which killed 3,000 civilians in a country of over 300 million," he also said. 

Penn warned that Schumer and Biden are acting in a manner that "emboldens Hamas and actually complicates arriving at any kind of peace," and if they focused on actually fighting Hamas, the terrorist group would be far more concerned about their survival and thus more willing to reach an agreement to free the hostages.

Penn previously served as a pollster for then-President Bill Clinton from 1994 through 2000, as well as for Hillary Clinton's 2000 and 2006 Senate Campaigns and her 2008 presidential campaign.

Biden endorsed Schumer's comments, as did many other Democrats, such as Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Ben Cardin, Md., and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Calif.   

Meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson, La., criticized Schumer over his remarks.

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