Harris said that the United States needed to uphold its obligation to international law and that the Biden administration's response to Israel's war was a failure in that regard.
Former US vice president Kamala Harris criticized former US president Joe Biden's administration's response to Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza during the 2026 Asan Memorial Lecture in Seoul on Wednesday.
Harris said that the United States needed to uphold its obligation to international law and that the Biden administration's response to Israel's war was a failure in that regard.
The former vice president called out the "failure to use our leverage to curtail the Israeli government's horrific conduct in the war in Gaza," saying that the Biden administration should have acted "sooner and more fully."
Harris also criticized the current US government under US President Donald Trump, saying that it "offers Netanyahu a blank check."
She also discussed the modern development of American foreign policy, saying that the "orthodoxies of old" were insufficient for current challenges.
“Coming out of world wars, and into the Cold War, military might was the primary source of power,” she said. “But now more than ever, economic innovation, markets and minerals, chips and computers, have greater influence.”
Kamala Harris plays coy on 2028 presidential run
She also said US relations and alliances must be strengthened.
“The growing relationship between, for example, China and Russia and Iran and North Korea is something we have to pay attention to, and it should be the reason that within our alliance that we are committed to strengthening what must, without any question, happen in terms of deterrence," she said.
Harris also expressed confidence that Democrats will win the upcoming US midterm election, though she avoided directly answering whether she was considering a 2028 presidential run. "2028, from my perspective, doesn’t matter if we don’t win 2026."