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Floor Speech

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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, this afternoon--in just, actually, a few short hours--Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu will deliver an address to a joint session of Congress.

As his country faces multiple attacks on multiple fronts--an existential threat, actually--Prime Minister Netanyahu has come to the United States to affirm the strong relationship between his country and ours and to highlight the stakes of this war.

This joint address comes at a critical time, and I am absolutely stunned and profoundly disappointed that the Vice President of the United States has decided to boycott participating in this particular speech. As we all know, it is traditional that the Vice President, as the President of the Senate, and the Speaker sit behind the invited speaker--in this case, Prime Minister Netanyahu.

I remember several years back, when Prime Minister Netanyahu was last here, that the Vice President and the Speaker both sat in those chairs, recognizing the importance of lending that dignity and sense of gravity to the proceeding. But Vice President Harris can't be bothered with any of that. She is blaming her decision on a scheduling conflict even though the date of this speech was announced in early June. The only other item on the Vice President's schedule is a speech to a sorority convention in Indianapolis. The world is on fire--we have never seen a more dangerous environment since World War II--and the Vice President can't be bothered to show up at the Nation's Capitol, in the House Chamber, and demonstrate the respect and courtesy that we thought was a given--but apparently not in this case.

Not only has the Vice President chosen to skip this address, so has the Senate's President pro tempore, Senator Murray. We learned this morning, the majority whip, Senator Durbin, is boycotting this address as well. I think it is absolutely disgraceful that the most senior members of the Democratic Party have chosen to give the Heisman to one of our closest allies in the Middle East--the only democracy in the Middle East that is fighting for its very existence. Why would they do something like this? Well, it is pretty obvious. It is pandering. It is pandering to the most radical elements of the Democratic base.

I am proud of the deep friendship between the United States and Israel. Our national security is tied up in the national security of Israel. We know Iran, the No. 1 state sponsor of terrorism, wants to wipe Israel off the map, like Hamas, which is a proxy for Iran, like Hezbollah, like the Houthis in Yemen, which all are determined to destroy the nation of Israel. So it has never been more important for the United States to stand shoulder to shoulder with our ally and friend against these unprovoked attacks by terrorist groups against innocent civilians.

There were 251 hostages taken on October 7--innocent civilians--in addition to all of the thousand-plus individuals who were murdered. Eight of the current hostages are American citizens, and the Vice President can't be bothered to show up? It is disgraceful.

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