Democrats who skipped Netanyahu speech blame Boehner

WASHINGTON — Democrats said Tuesday they refused to attend Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address to a joint meeting of Congress because it was a partisan event convened by Republicans to undermine President Obama.

"That the speaker of the House of Representatives would allow the floor of this chamber to be used to undercut the negotiations of the president of the United States is partisan. and it's not right," said Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., shortly after the address.

Around 60 Democrats boycotted Netanyahu's speech, many casting their absence as a protest against Speaker John Boehner, not the prime minister.

"The House of Representatives is the most prestigious venue in the world. And to use it for political purposes was something that I did not want to be part of," said Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill.

Rep. David Price of North Carolina said his choice to not attend was not a judgment on the content of the speech. "This is a matter of abstaining from a speech that never should have occurred," he said.

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Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, a hero of the party's liberals, was perhaps the highest-profile lawmaker who stayed away from the House chamber Tuesday.

"It's unfortunate that Speaker Boehner's actions on the eve of a national election in Israel have made Tuesday's event more political and less helpful for addressing the critical issue of nuclear nonproliferation and the safety of our most important ally in the Middle East," she said in a statement to The Boston Globe.

Boehner announced the invitation to Netanyahu — who is deeply skeptical of the Obama administration's nuclear negotiations with Iran — the day after President Obama gave his State of the Union Address and asked Congress to hold off on additional sanctions on Iran while the negotiations were ongoing.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., wrote in an op-ed for TheHuffington Post, "I do not want to participate in a political stunt that may have short-term payoffs for partisanship and the conservative parties in both Israel and the United States at the expense of long-term damage to one of the most important international relationships the United States has — and the most important international relationship the Israelis have."

Several senior members of the Congressional Black Caucus boycotted the speech, including Chairman G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C., but Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., said he attended at the request of his constituents. Butterfield said afterward that he and the Black Caucus remain staunch supporters of Israel.

Neither Obama nor Biden heard the speech. Obama was holding a conference call with European leaders to discuss Ukraine and other security issues. Biden is in Guatemala meeting with Central American leaders to discuss progress on promoting economic and political development there in part to keep unaccompanied children from flocking to the U.S. border.

Republicans rose to Boehner's defense, saying Netanyahu's speech was an important message about the dangers of Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Boehner said in a statement after the speech, "This was a speech the American people needed to hear, plain and simple. It addressed the gravity of the threats we face and why we cannot allow a nuclear Iran, or any semblance of a path to a nuclear Iran."

And Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said simply, ""Support for the State of Israel in Congress — and in the United States — has always been bipartisan and it always should be."