To say Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's (D-NY) shocking rebuke of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his call for regime change in Israel on the floor of the United States Senate on Thursday has sent shockwaves through Capitol Hill and beyond would be an understatement.

For those who missed it, here's what Schumer - who is America's highest-ranking Jewish elected official - had to say earlier:

“However, I also believe Prime Minister Netanyahu has lost his way by allowing his political survival to take the precedence over the best interests of Israel,” Schumer said, arguing Netanyahu is currently in a coalition with “far-right extremists” and has been “too willing to tolerate the civilian toll in Gaza, which is pushing support for Israel worldwide to historic lows.” 

“As a lifelong supporter of Israel, it has become clear to me: The Netanyahu coalition no longer fits the needs of Israel after Oct. 7,” Schumer added, referring to Hamas’s attack. “The world has changed — radically — since then, and the Israeli people are being stifled right now by a governing vision that is stuck in the past.”

Watch:

"I believe that holding a new election once the war starts to wind down would give Israelis an opportunity to express their vision for the post-war future."

— Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) calls for new elections in Israel pic.twitter.com/yFXM6504oh

— The Recount (@therecount) March 14, 2024

In a tweet posted a few hours after his speech, Schumer tried and failed to clarify his remarks.

"The U.S. cannot dictate the outcome of an election," he wrote. "That is for the Israeli public to decide. As a democracy, Israel has the right to choose its own leaders. But the important thing is that Israelis are given a choice."

"There needs to be a fresh debate about the future," Schumer also wrote.

The good news is that Israel has, in a nutshell, told Schumer - and via extension the Biden administration, which reportedly has been conducting its own campaign through backdoor channels to try and oust Bibi - to pound sound.

The bad news, at least for Schumer anyway, is that his previous statements on foreign interference in U.S. elections have come back to haunt him, as evidenced by remarks from 2020 that resurfaced where he was saying we must remain "vigilant" against all the countries who would try to interfere in our elections.

His comments, which were made during a July 2020 interview with CNN, were posted on his Senate website at the time. Here's the transcript:

Alisyn Camerota: We are about a hundred days away from the election. How worried are you on a scale of 1 to 10 about interference in the election?

Sen. Schumer: I'm very worried. They did it before. It's a lot of countries are trying to do it. We have to be prepared. We have to be guarded. We have to make sure they don't. There was less of it in 2018 than 2016. But no one knows if that's because some of these countries decided to lay off and give us a sense of complacency or not. But we should be ever vigilant—ever vigilant. If people think that a foreign country helped determine our election and lose faith in our democracy, that’s the beginning of the end of this grand experiment in democracy that has been so successful for more than 200 and some odd years.

Watch:

In 2020, Chuck Schumer was "very worried" about foreign countries interfering in American elections, calling such interference "the beginning of the end of this grand experiment in democracy."

Today he demanded new elections in Israel to remove Benjamin Netanyahu from office. pic.twitter.com/jDvZf1oPuH

— Dan O'Donnell (@DanODonnellShow) March 14, 2024

To reiterate a point my colleague Bonchie made, this is quite the 180 from Schumer and Company considering all their prior statements to the contrary:

Remember when Democrats proclaimed foreign interference in elections to be a clear and present threat to "democracy?" Apparently, that standard doesn't apply when it comes to American politicians sticking their noses in the affairs of Israel. These are the same people who claim Russia stole an election with Facebook memes, but trying to sabotage an allied prime minister is just fine.

Always remember: It's (D)ifferent when a Democrat does it.

Flashback: Chuck Schumer Sorta Gives the Game Away on FBI's Mar-a-Lago Raid During Maddow Interview