The White House on Wednesday would not say whether Vice President Joe Biden plans to attend Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress in early March.
“The vice president’s schedule for that week has not yet been set,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said, repeatedly declining to say whether President Obama believed Biden should be present for Netanyahu’s speech.
Typically, the vice president attends an address by a foreign head of state to a joint session of Congress. However, Netanyahu’s address in the first week of March was hardly welcomed by Obama.
Obama has already said he won’t meet with the Israeli leader when he visits Washington, arguing it would be “inappropriate” to host such a gathering so close to Israel’s elections.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, invited Netanyahu, who is expected to press lawmakers to approve new sanctions on Iran. The White House called the invitation a “breach of protocol,” insisting Obama should have first been notified.
The Netanyahu speech is particularly awkward for Democrats, many of whom are considering a boycott of the address.
On whether Democrats should attend the speech, Earnest said, “The president believes individual members of Congress ought to decide for themselves.”
