Rep. Paul Ryan defended House Speaker John Boehner’s decision to invite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak before Congress without consulting the White House.
“Do I think it’s wholly appropriate for the speaker of the House — [that] a separate but equal branch of government is free to invite a foreign leader to address us? Absolutely,” the Wisconsin Republican said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday.
Boehner extended the invite to Netanyahu just a day after President Obama’s State of the Union address in which Obama hardly mentioned Israel and dismissed the threat of a nuclear Iran. The White House has expressed anger toward Boehner’s invitation and said meeting with Netanyahu would be inappropriate due to the upcoming Israeli elections.
Ryan defended Boehner and the House GOP to Chuck Todd, who asked whether the visit could antagonize relations.
“I don’t know if I would say it’s antagonizing. I think we would like to hear from the leader of Israel on his thoughts on Iran,” Ryan said.
“The president’s policies with Iran have bipartisan concern. A huge bipartisan majority in both the House and the Senate are very worried about the handling of these negotiations,” he added.
June 30 is the impending deadline to get a nuclear deal with Iran.
