Utah Sen. Orin Hatch says that the White House "acted like a bunch of spoiled brats" with the way it reacted to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit.
"I think the White House really fouled this up. All that they had to do was say, 'well, we're disappointed that we weren't consulted, but we welcome the prime minister and we'd surely like to meet with him while he's here,' "
Hatch told USA Today Friday.
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"They didn't do that. They just acted like a bunch of spoiled brats who didn't know what they were doing. They looked ridiculous in world-wide matters, in foreign policy," he said.
The White House
criticized the move by House Speaker John Boehner to invite Netanyahu to address Congress Tuesday since it was only two weeks before the prime minister's upcoming bid for re-election. The Obama administration also said that Boehner should have consulted the White House before extending the invitation.
"There's no reason why the Congress can't invite anybody. Now, it might have been better protocol to let the president know, but he knew," Hatch said.
The Utah Republican also said that other presidents would have handled the situation differently.
"[Former President Ronald] Reagan would have said, 'Great! We're going to meet with him too,' " he contends. "I think [Former President] George Herbert Walker Bush would have handle it much differently. He would have said to the people, this is important foreign policy to have the leader of Israel here, whether I agree with him or not,' admitting that "of course, [Bush] does."
"I think they blew it. I think it was a mistake. I think it was a shame that they blew it," Hatch told USA Today. "They would have much more credibility to criticize had they had the good sense to have their top people there, including Vice President [Joe] Biden."
Hatch is currently serving as the Senate president pro tempore, which means he is supposed to fill the vice president's duties in the Senate when he is absent. Since Biden was out of the country during Netanyahu's address to Congress, Hatch sat in the chair next to Boehner behind Nethanyahu that would typically be filled by the vice president.
"I was basically disgusted with the way the White House handled this," Hatch said.
"I'll tell you, we're coming to the opinion up here on Capitol Hill, many of us, that they've hired a lot of young people down there (who) don't know what they're doing."
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