Fox News Is Praising Joe Biden

Fox News chief political analyst Brit Hume praised President Joe Biden for his Oval Office address on Thursday calling for more financial aid to be sent to Israel and Ukraine.

In a rare prime-time speech which followed the president's highly-anticipated visit to Israel earlier this week, Biden asked Americans to stand behind Israel and Ukraine, saying that both countries face threats of annihilation from tyrants and terrorists.

The 15-minute speech addressed to the nation was only the second Biden has delivered from the Oval Office during his time in office.

He made the case for sending more military and financial aid to both countries in the interest of global stability and national security and said he would send a budget request to Congress asking for additional funds.

"History has taught us that when terrorists don't pay a price for their terror, when dictators don't pay a price for their aggression, they cause more chaos and death and more destruction," Biden said. "They keep going. And the cost and the threats to America and the world keep rising."

Commenting on the president's speech on air after being asked for his opinion by Fox News host Bret Baier, Hume—who has often been critical of Biden in previous reports, even before he took office as president—called it possibly "the best" of all Biden's speeches.

"I think it may be remembered as one of the best, if not the best, speeches of his presidency," he said. "He was firm, he was unequivocal, he was strong, as he has been particularly in recent days before he went to Israel and while he was over there."

Hume also praised Biden for focusing his speech on Ukraine as well as Israel, though he said the strength of the president's stance was weakened by his decision in the summer of 2021 to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

"I was struck by the fact that he spent as much time as he did on Ukraine, and I think it was a good thing that he did because the aid for the Ukraine package that he's talking about, and further aid to Ukraine beyond that, is in jeopardy," Hume said.

"And I think that he was hampered a little bit in that effort by the fact that he dare not really mention the best reason—I mean, he mentioned broadly speaking the best reason for sticking with it in Ukraine, which is, 'What would the rest of the world and its evildoers think if we pulled out of there?' because that comes on the heels of his having pulled out of Afghanistan, which arguably emboldened all of our adversaries around the world, particularly Vladimir Putin."

At the time, in August 2021, Hume had called Biden "manifestly senile"—a stark change from Thursday's praises.

The president is widely expected to ask for $14 billion in military and security aid to Israel and $60 billion for Ukraine, a request that is likely to meet some opposition in Congress, especially from progressive Democrats and hardline conservative Republicans.

"American leadership is what holds the world together," Biden said on Thursday. "American alliances are what keep us, America, safe. American values are what make us a partner that other nations want to work with."

He added: "To put all that at risk, if we walk away from Ukraine, if we turn our backs on Israel, it's just not worth it."

Newsweek contacted Fox News for comment.