State Department Spokesperson Grilled On Netanyahu Congressional Speech: Why Isn’t VP Harris Going?

2 months ago

During a press briefing on Tuesday, State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller responded to reporter questions on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's upcoming speech before Congress.

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Transcript

00:00QUESTION.

00:02Republicans are criticizing Vice President Harris for not attending or not planning to

00:05attend Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's speech to a joint meeting of Congress tomorrow.

00:10She'll be campaigning in the Midwest, but Republicans say she's boycotting the speech.

00:15Of course, there's also no public meeting right now between Secretary Blinken and Netanyahu.

00:20Can you say if this is a boycott or if there are any concerns on behalf of the Administration

00:25about the optics of meeting with Netanyahu publicly?

00:28MR.

00:29RATHKE.

00:30So Republicans are going to say what Republicans are going to say.

00:31I don't have to – I don't spend much time worrying about that, nor do I spend much time

00:36worried about optics.

00:37I worry about substance and reality.

00:39And the reality is the Vice President's office has made clear that she had a pre-scheduled

00:44trip before the prime minister announced this date, which is a date he decided in consultation

00:50with Congress, not with the Administration.

00:52So she had pre-announced travel.

00:54And I would just ask, what is more important, being there for a speech or meeting with the

00:59prime minister and talking about how we can work together to address our concerns?

01:03I would posit that a meeting is more important.

01:05QUESTION.

01:06Do you have Israeli officials reached out with any concerns?

01:08This is the first time this has happened, the Vice President not attending a speech

01:11before a joint meeting of Congress in over three decades, I believe.

01:14MR.

01:15RATHKE.

01:16Not that I'm aware of.

01:17QUESTION.

01:18Just one more chance.

01:19MR.

01:20RATHKE.

01:21Yeah.

01:22QUESTION.

01:23Would there be any meetings with other members of the delegation that would come with Netanyahu?

01:24MR.

01:25RATHKE.

01:26I don't –

01:27QUESTION.

01:28Let's say at the State Department.

01:29MR.

01:30RATHKE.

01:31I don't have anything to announce, but typically when you have a head of state or head of government

01:32meeting to the United States, there are always meetings that happen on the sidelines of that

01:33visit, and I would expect that to be the case here.

01:34Yeah.

State Department Spokesperson Grilled On Netanyahu Congressional Speech: Why Isn’t VP Harris Going?

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