Politics
Top Black Dems to Skip Netanyahu Speech
Mike Lillis, THE HILL
WASHINGTON (The Hill)—Leading members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) are lining up to skip a coming speech by the prime minister of Israel.
Reps. John Lewis (D-Ga.), the civil rights icon, and G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.), the chairman of the CBC, said they won’t attend Benjamin Netanyahu’s March 3 speech before Congress to protest Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) decision to invite the prime minister without first consulting President Obama and Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill.
Butterfield said that move marked an “unprecedented overreach of the Speaker’s authority” that “goes beyond the traditions of his office.”
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