House GOP leaders call Schumer's Israel comments 'inappropriate,’ demand apology in impromptu press conference

House Republican leaders are blasting Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and demanding he apologize for urging Israel to hold new elections while criticizing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The top four GOP lawmakers held an impromptu press conference during their annual retreat this year at the Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia, immediately after Schumer’s statement.

"As we were in a work session here within the last half hour, there was a buzz among the audience as people were seeing notices come across their phone as something that was rather shocking to us," Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said. 

"We saw the remarks from Sen. Chuck Schumer calling for new elections in Israel. And we want to speak very clearly and concisely to say that this is not only highly inappropriate, but just plain wrong for an American leader to play such a divisive role in Israeli politics, while our closest ally in the region is in an existential battle for its very survival."

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House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said Schumer’s comments were "disturbing" in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 surprise attack on Israel, in which terrorists invaded the southern part of the country and killed over 1,200 people – mainly civilians.

"Sen. Schumer owes an apology to the people of Israel, who elected their leadership," Scalise said. "This isn't a time for games. This is a time to stand with our friends who are under attack and show no daylight between the United States and Israel."

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., accused Schumer and fellow Democrats of choosing Hamas over Israel.

"Our Democrats, Chuck Schumer, et al., the White House, they have a problem. But it's not with Netanyahu. It is with the anti-Israel members of their own party that have taken over the woke left. While they choose Hamas, House Republicans will continue to stand with Israel," Emmer said.

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They left without taking questions from reporters. It comes just as House Republicans are expected to hear from Israeli Ambassador Michael Herzog at their multi-day retreat.

Back in Washington, Schumer took to the Senate floor on Thursday morning, where he condemned both Hamas and Israel for the high death toll of Palestinians and the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza as Israel responds to the Oct. 7 attack.

He called on Palestinians to throw off their leader, President Mahmoud Abbas, and for Israelis to demand a new election to elect a less "radical" government.

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"Hamas and the Palestinians who support and tolerate their evil ways, radical right-wing Israelis in government and society, President Abbas, Prime Minister Netanyahu – these are the four obstacles to peace, and if we fail to overcome them, then Israel and the West Bank and Gaza will be trapped in the same violent state of affairs they’ve experienced for the last 75 years," Schumer said.

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"These obstacles are not the same in their culpability for the present state of affairs. But arguing over which is the worst stymies our ability to achieve peace."

More than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s military response, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians.