KUALA LUMPUR: US broadcaster and political commentator Mehdi Hasan has called US President Joe Biden's foreign policy on the war in Gaza a "moral travesty."
Speaking to the New Straits Times' Beyond the Headlines during his visit to Malaysia for the National Human Capital Conference & Exhibition (NHCCE), Hasan sharply criticised Biden's shift from being "a good foreign policy president to one of the worst" in light of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
"[...] Oct 7 happened, and Biden's posture on Israel has been an absolute scandal, a moral travesty, a geopolitical disaster.
"Look at the escalation in the Middle East just this week. We're on the verge of an all out regional war, god forbid. And, yeah, he's gone from being a not bad or quite good foreign policy president to being one of the worst foreign policy presidents in modern American history."
Hasan previously praised Biden for ending the war in Afghanistan and investing in climate change but now says he has failed on Middle East policy.
"We have a genocide in Gaza that he enabled, he armed, he funded, and, yeah, that is a problem. So last year, what I said, I stand by on the domestic front, but on the foreign policy front– absolute disaster."
Having called Biden the "most impressive US president" in history in a 2023 interview with the UK's The Guardian, Mehdi said he still stands by his view that, domestically, Biden remains successful, noting that Biden has passed more bills than any president since Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1960s.
Johnson, the 36th US president following the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963, was known for passing the US Civil Rights Act of 1964, a landmark civil rights and labour law in the US outlawing discrimination based on race, colour, religion, sex, and national origin.
He also went on to sign the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in 1967 that has since allowed any US citizen to request the government to release and disclose information or documents, except for exemptions in areas such as national security and personal privacy, that were previously withheld.
"When I said that (about Biden), it was March, 2023. I was promoting my book and I was interviewed by The Guardian. And I said, look, as a lefty, I'm absolutely surprised at how many things Joe Biden has done that I agree with, (like) ending the war in Afghanistan.
"The inflation reduction (under the Biden administration) and record amounts of investment to fight climate change. And he's passed more bills than any president since LBJ in the 1960s.
"He has a very impressive domestic record. And on foreign policy at the time, I said he had ended the war in Afghanistan. He had avoided putting American boots on the ground in Ukraine," Hasan added.
Hasan's comments came as he discussed his departure from MSNBC and his decision to found Zateo, a progressive, self-funded media platform free from corporate influence.
He also weighed in on the upcoming US election, saying that both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris– the Republican and Democrat candidates, are "awful on the Middle East."
He added, however, that between the two, Harris is "mentally competent," while Trump, he says, is "mentally unfit" to lead the country.
"There's very little to choose between them (Harris and Trump). The political scientist John Meerschaum recently said it's (choosing between) Tweedledum and Tweedledee when it comes to Gaza.
"Both parties are pro Israel. But the world is about more than just Israel. So if you ask me on the climate, on health care, on social spending, on child poverty, on a whole multiplicity of issues, of course, Harris is better than Trump. That's indisputable. And separate to any issues, she's also mentally competent.
"Donald J Trump is not mentally competent to be president. You wouldn't put him in charge of your kid's school, let alone put him in charge of the world's only superpower with nuclear weapons. The man is clearly off his rocker. He's 78 years old. He's not fit to be president," Hasan said.