More than 30 Democratic lawmakers to skip Netanyahu speech – report
More than 30 House and Senate Democrats are not planning to attend Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech today to Congress, NBC News is reporting.
Netanyahu is scheduled to address a joint meeting on Congress this afternoon at 2pm ET.
The #NBC Capitol Hill team says more than 30 House & Senate Democrats are planning to skip Netanyahu’s speech today to Congress
Some will boycott it entirely.
Others will listen from their offices instead of the chamber.
And some have planned counter-programming events— Doug Adams (@DougNBC) July 24, 2024
Key events
Republican congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky said he will not be attending Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress, writing that he didn’t “feel like being a prop” in “political theater”. Posting to X, Massie added:
The purpose of having Netanyahu address Congress is to bolster his political standing in Israel and to quell int’l opposition to his war.
Today Congress will undertake political theater on behalf of the State Department.
The purpose of having Netanyahu address Congress is to bolster his political standing in Israel and to quell int’l opposition to his war.
I don’t feel like being a prop so I won’t be attending.
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) July 24, 2024
JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee, also does not plan to attend Netanyahu’s speech, according to reports.
A statement by Jason Miller, senior adviser to the Trump campaign, reads:
Senator Vance stands steadfastly with the people of Israel in their fight to defend their homeland, eradicate terrorist threats, and bring back their countrymen held hostage. He will not however be in attendance for Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech to Congress as he has duties to fulfill as the Republican nominee for Vice President.
Mike Johnson warns of ‘zero-tolerance policy’ and arrests over Netanyahu speech disruptions
Mike Johnson, the Republican House speaker, has warned of a “zero-tolerance policy” for any signs of disturbances in the Capitol building during Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress this afternoon.
Johnson, in a letter to House members on Tuesday, wrote that there will be additional security measures and the note served as a “friendly reminder of the longstanding rules and decorum of the House”.
In the interests of all involved, we will enforce a zero-tolerance policy for disturbances in the building. All members should kindly inform their guests that any disruption of the proceedings of the House is a violation of the rules and may subject the offenders to prosecution. If any disturbance does occur, the sergeant at arms and Capitol police will remove the offending visitor(s) from the gallery and subject them to arrest.
Johnson just sent a letter to all House members urging decorum during Netanyahu’s address to a joint meeting of Congress tomorrow.
Several Democrats are planning to boycott the speech.
“any disruption of the proceedings of the rules and may subject the offenders to prosecution” pic.twitter.com/J27jJsQHPj
— Mychael Schnell (@mychaelschnell) July 23, 2024
About 200 people were arrested on Tuesday during a pro-Palestinian protest in a congressional building ahead of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress today.
The demonstration, organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, took place in the rotunda of the Cannon House office building.
In a statement shared by NBC News, the Jewish Voice for Peace executive director, Stefanie Fox, said:
For nine months, we’ve watched in horror as the Israeli government has carried out a genocide, armed and funded by the US. Congress and the Biden administration have the power to end this horror today. Instead, our president is preparing to meet with Netanyahu and congressional leadership has honored him with an invitation to address Congress.
The Democratic senator for Washington Patty Murray, who is also the president pro tempore of the Senate, will not be attending Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech.
In a statement, Murray said:
Securing a lasting, mutual ceasefire is of the utmost importance right now, and I will continue to push for one to be reached as soon as possible. I hope Prime Minister Netanyahu will use the opportunity to address how he plans to secure a ceasefire – and lasting peace in the region.
The Senate majority whip, Dick Durbin of Illinois, said in a statement that Israel’s war in Gaza under Netanyahu’s direction “is a brutal strategy beyond any acceptable level of self-defense”, adding:
I will stand by Israel, but I will not stand and cheer its current prime minister at tomorrow’s joint session.
Nancy Pelosi to skip Netanyahu’s address – report
Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker, will also not be attending Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress this afternoon, the New York Times’ Annie Karni reports. A statement by Pelosi reads:
Speaker Pelosi will not be attending today’s Joint Meeting of Congress. This morning, she will join a Members meeting with Israeli citizens whose families have suffered in the wake of the October 7th Hamas terror attack and kidnappings.
Michigan congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian American lawmaker in Congress, said it was “utterly disgraceful” that Benjamin Netanyahu had been invited to address Congress, adding that the Israeli leader should be “arrested and sent to the international criminal court”.
It is a dark day in US history when an authoritarian with warrant requests from the International Criminal Court is allowed to address a joint session of Congress.
40k Palestinians are dead.
Hostages aren’t home.
Netanyahu is a war criminal.
I will be boycotting his address.— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 23, 2024
New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she plans to boycott Netanyahu’s speech this afternoon, calling the Israeli prime minister a “war criminal”.
Netanyahu is a war criminal committing genocide against the Palestinian people. It is utterly disgraceful that leaders from both parties have invited him to address Congress. He should be arrested and sent to the International Criminal Court.
— Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (@RepRashida) July 23, 2024
Florida congressman Maxwell Alejandro Frost said he would also skip the speech, adding that he “detest[s] what Netanyahu is doing, and I detest his leadership”.
More than 30 Democratic lawmakers to skip Netanyahu speech – report
More than 30 House and Senate Democrats are not planning to attend Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech today to Congress, NBC News is reporting.
Netanyahu is scheduled to address a joint meeting on Congress this afternoon at 2pm ET.
The #NBC Capitol Hill team says more than 30 House & Senate Democrats are planning to skip Netanyahu’s speech today to Congress
Some will boycott it entirely.
Others will listen from their offices instead of the chamber.
And some have planned counter-programming events— Doug Adams (@DougNBC) July 24, 2024
Biden to meet with Netanyahu in the Oval Office on Thursday
Joe Biden will meet with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in the Oval Office on Thursday, the White House said.
The two leaders will “discuss developments in Gaza and progress towards a ceasefire and hostage release deal and the United States’ ironclad commitment to Israel’s security, including countering Iran’s threats to Israel and the broader region”, according to a statement from the White House.
Afterwards, Biden and Netanyahu will meet with the families of Americans held hostage by Hamas.
Netanyahu is also expected to meet with Donald Trump on Friday, the former US president announced on his Truth Social platform.
The Israeli leader has kept a low profile since arriving in Washington DC on Monday, holding a series of small meetings with the families of hostages kidnapped by Hamas, but he is scheduled to deliver an address to a joint session of Congress later today.
Dozens of Democratic lawmakers are planning to boycott Netanyahu’s speech to Congress. Kamala Harris will not be attending, which an aide said was because of a scheduling conflict. According to his public schedule, Netanyahu will meet with the House speaker, Mike Johnson, and the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, before the speech.
Hillary Clinton, the former Democratic presidential candidate and the country’s first female presidential nominee from a major party, has said she believes Kamala Harris can beat Donald Trump despite the “sexism and double standards of American politics”.
Clinton, in an op-ed for the New York Times, wrote:
I know a thing or two about how hard it can be for strong women candidates to fight through the sexism and double standards of American politics. I’ve been called a witch, a ‘nasty woman’ and much worse. I was even burned in effigy. As a candidate, I sometimes shied away from talking about making history. I wasn’t sure voters were ready for that.
The former US secretary of state said she was “excited” about Harris, who she said represents “a fresh start” for American politics and who offers a “hopeful, unifying vision”. “She is talented, experienced and ready to be president,” Clinton wrote.
Ms Harris will face unique additional challenges as the first Black and South Asian woman to be at the top of a major party’s ticket. That’s real, but we shouldn’t be afraid. It is a trap to believe that progress is impossible.
Kevin McCarthy calls DEI attacks on Kamala Harris ‘stupid and dumb’
Kevin McCarthy, the former Republican House speaker, has described attacks by his former colleagues on Kamala Harris claiming that she was hired as part of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives are “stupid and dumb”.
McCarthy, speaking to NBC News’ Meet the Press NOW last night, said:
I disagree with DEI, but she is the vice-president of the United States, she is the former US senator. These congressmen saying it, they are wrong in their own instincts.
WATCH: Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy says DEI attacks on VP Kamala Harris are “stupid and dumb.”@SpeakerMcCarthy: “I disagree with DEI, but she’s the vice president of the United States. … These congressmen that are saying it, they’re wrong in their own instincts.” pic.twitter.com/rKNaFLL95l
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) July 23, 2024
In an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal earlier this month, the veteran Republican election lawyer Charlie Spies, a former counsel for the Republican National Committee, argued that the Biden-Harris team must be formally nominated by their party before any money could be shifted. Spies wrote:
If President Biden is committed to passing the torch to his vice president, and wants to be able to seed her campaign with the current Biden for President campaign war chest, he’ll first have to become his party’s legal nominee. After shuffling through the Democratic National Committee’s planned roll call vote he’d be free to drop out. Ms Harris could seamlessly slip into the driver’s seat.
Dara Lindenbaum, the commissioner of the Federal Election Commission, has said she agrees with the view that Kamala Harris can access Joe Biden’s campaign funds if she becomes the Democratic party’s nominee.
Lindenbaum, in a post to X on Sunday, wrote:
If Kamala Harris becomes the Democratic Party nominee, she gets access to the Joe Biden campaign funds.
In an interview reported by the New York Times, Lindenbaum said it was “very clear” that Harris “gets to use all the money in the account if she is the party’s presidential nominee. “In my view, this is not an open question,” she said.
![Hugo Lowell](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2023/05/25/Hugo_Lowell.png?width=300&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=caefea5e156841f14b7ee37aa2e5f6ab)
Hugo Lowell
Whether the Federal Election Commission complaint generates traction with the FEC remains unclear, but the Trump campaign has been looking for any way to slow down the momentum Kamala Harris has been able to generate with voters and donors after she quickly became the presumptive Democratic nominee.
The strategy, according to people familiar with the matter, has included opening new legal battles to try to prevent Harris from accessing Biden’s funds, although the complaint on Tuesday stopped short of a lawsuit.
The complaint, earlier reported by the New York Times, also argued that Harris taking over Biden’s remaining campaign funds amounted to an excessive unlawful contribution given that “Biden for President” was not an authorized committee for the Harris campaign.
The Harris campaign has viewed the FEC complaint as a spurious legal effort to throw sand in their gears, noting that the Biden-Harris committees have always been authorized committees for either Biden or Harris, according to a person familiar with the thinking.
Trump files complaint against Harris for taking over Biden’s campaign funds
![Hugo Lowell](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2023/05/25/Hugo_Lowell.png?width=300&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=caefea5e156841f14b7ee37aa2e5f6ab)
Hugo Lowell
Donald Trump’s campaign on Tuesday filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission against the vice-president, Kamala Harris, accusing her 2024 campaign of violating federal campaign finance laws by replacing Joe Biden’s name with her own to take control of his campaign funds.
The complaint, filed by the Trump campaign’s general counsel, David Warrington, argued that the Biden campaign could not rename its committee from “Biden for President” to “Harris for President” once Biden dropped out of the race on Sunday, and roll over $91m. The eight-page complaint said:
This is little more than a thinly veiled $91.5m excessive contribution from one presidential candidate to another, that is, from Joe Biden’s old campaign to Kamala Harris’s new campaign. This effort makes a mockery of our campaign finance laws.
“Federal candidates are prohibited from keeping contributions for elections in which they do not participate,” it added.
Biden for President 2024 has shown no intention to properly refund or re-designate the general election funds it has already received. This makes them all excess contributions.
Some more comments from German chancellor Olaf Scholz on Kamala Karris. He said he had met several times with the US vice-president and called her a “competent and experienced politician”.
Scholz said it was always important for him to assess in talks whether politicians were simply saying what had been prepared for them or actually able to engage in dialogue – and in his several meetings with Harris, she had convinced him of the latter.
“She knows what she wants and what she can do,” he said on Wednesday in an annual summer news conference that touched on a wide range of topics.
German chancellor Olaf Scholz said he believed it was “very possible” US vice-president Kamala Harris would win the US election later this year, stopping short of endorsing Harris over Republican Donald Trump.
Scholz had been unusually direct in his endorsement of US President Joe Biden before the latter dropped his reelection bid last weekend and endorsed Harris as the Democrat party’s candidate to face Trump in the November election.
“The election campaign in the USA will certainly be exciting, now with a slightly new lineup and a new constellation,” Scholz told an annual summer news conference on Wednesday.
“I think it is very possible that Kamala Harris will win the election, but the American voters will decide.”
Dozens of Democrats plan to skip Netanyahu address to US Congress
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to address the US Congress on Wednesday as dozens of Democrats plan to skip the speech.
Protests over his arrival in Washington DC have already begun, including a sit-in at a congressional office building that ended with multiple arrests, according to the Associated Press.
He will speak to a joint meeting of the Senate and House of Representatives at 2pm (7pm UK time). This will be his fourth time making such an address, surpassing Winston Churchill’s record as the foreign leader who has made the most joint addresses to the US Congress.
Dozens of Democrats plan to skip the speech, many expressing dismay over Israel’s military campaign in Gaza which has killed more than 39,000 people and led to a humanitarian crisis on the ground. Presumptive Democratic nominee Kamala Harris will not be in attendance as she is on the campaign trail outside DC but she plans to meet Netanyahu separately.
Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen told reporters: “For him, this is all about shoring up his support back home, which is one of the reasons I don’t want to attend.”
“I don’t want to be part of a political prop in this act of deception. He is not the great guardian of the US-Israel relationship.”
The Democrats planning to stay away also include Senators Dick Durbin, the chamber’s number two Democrat, Tim Kaine, Jeff Merkley and Brian Schatz, all members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as well as Patty Murray, who chairs Senate Appropriations.
In the House, those staying away included progressives like Representatives Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as well as Ami Bera, a senior member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and Adam Smith, the top Democrat on Armed Services.
Smith said he never attends joint meetings but also described himself on Tuesday as “very, very opposed to what prime minister Netanyahu is doing in Israel.”
Murray normally would have presided, as the senior Senate Democrat, because Harris will not attend. Democratic Senator Ben Cardin, who leads the foreign relations committee, will replace her.
Netanyahu is due to travel to Florida to meet with Donald Trump later this week. The meeting will be their first since the end of Trump’s presidency, during which the two forged close ties.
Harris Campaign raises $126m since announcing 2024 run
The Harris Campaign has announced that, as of Tuesday evening, they have raised $126m since announcing 2024 run.
Trump to turn fire on Harris in his first rally since Biden dropped out of race
Welcome to our coverage of the US presidential race with all the major players due to speak today.
Republican nominee Donald Trump will hold his first rally since it was announced that Joe Biden will drop out of the race. The former president will appear at an event in Charlotte, North Carolina, a state that will be an important battleground in the 5 November election. He will turn his fire on Kamala Harris, who is almost certain to run against him, amid fears from his aides of a “Harris honeymoon”.
Meanwhile, as Reuters reports, the vice-president will head to Indianapolis to speak at an event hosted by the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, which was founded at Howard University, the historically Black college that Harris attended.
She hopes to tap sororities’ multi-generational network of Black women to deliver strong voter turnout for Democrats in November.
Harris held an energetic first rally as the likely nominee on Tuesday in Milwaukee, telling the crowd that Americans were “not going back” to the “chaos” of the Trump years.
Joe Biden will also be speaking. He is set to make a case for his legacy on Wednesday night when he delivers an Oval Office address about his decision to bow out of the race and “what lies ahead.”