EXCLUSIVE: A top grassroots group that represents Jewish Republicans is taking aim at Vice President Kamala Harris for being absent from Wednesday’s speech by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in front of a joint meeting of Congress.
The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC), in an announcement shared first with Fox News, is launching a five-figure digital ad buy in key general election swing states that accuses the vice president and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee for “snubbing” the Israeli leader’s address to Congress.
The speaker of the House and the vice president, in the constitutional role as president of the Senate, usually preside over joint meetings and sessions of Congress.
However, Harris will be notably absent while Netanyahu is addressing Congress. The vice president will instead be attending a previously scheduled luncheon with the Zeta Phi Beta sorority.
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Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at West Allis Central High School during her first campaign rally in Milwaukee on July 23, 2024. (KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
The vice president and President Biden will meet with Netanyahu separately on Thursday.
Harris, who is now the Democratic Party’s 2024 presumptive nominee after Biden ended his re-election bid and endorsed his vice president on Sunday, is seen as slightly more sympathetic to the Palestinian cause than her boss amid the nearly 10-month-long war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
Additionally, while Haris is the most high-profile Democrat not to attend Nentayahu’s speech, she is far from alone. Many Democrats in Congress, including some top figures including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, will also skip the address, as they protest the Israeli leader’s prosecution of the war in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of Congress on Wednesday. (REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/Pool/File Photo)
“Instead of supporting America’s strongest ally by attending Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech to Congress, Kamala Harris decides to go a sorority luncheon,” the narrator in the RJC’s ad says. “A sorority luncheon. She can’t be serious.”
“Kamala Harris: Her priorities are not our priorities,” the narrator concludes.
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RJC CEO Matt Brooks told Fox News that the ads will run “in key battleground states, targeting Jewish voters utilizing the best data operation in politics.”
Brooks argued that “Vice President Kamala Harris, as President of the US Senate, should be in attendance to preside over the chamber. Harris has totally failed her first test as a candidate for President of the United States – and the RJC will hold her accountable.”
Harris is not the only member of a national ticket in the 2024 election who will be missing Netanyahu’s speech.
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Republican Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, the GOP vice presidential nominee, will also be absent. Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller said that the former president’s running mate had “duties to fulfill” on the campaign trail.
The RJC remained neutral in the GOP presidential nomination race. However, after Trump clinched the nomination, the RJC in May announced that it was committed to raising a minimum of $5 million — from its donors and from its RJC Victory Fund super PAC — to help elect Trump.
RJC national political director Sam Markstein highlighted at the time that this “will be the RJC’s largest effort ever to mobilize support in the Jewish community for President Trump.”
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