Asked about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s supposed upcoming address to Congress, House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar said Speaker Mike Johnson claimed the House “didn’t have the floor time” for Kenyan President William Ruto to speak before the U.S. legislative body when he was in D.C. for a state visit last month.
Aguilar was first asked about members of the Democratic Caucus who intend to boycott Netanyahu’s planned speech before Congress — which was originally set for June 13, but the exact timing of which is now unclear.
“I can both hold the position that I respect any world leader who’s invited by the Speaker of the House and the majority leader of the Senate to come and address Congress ... while also respecting members’ positions that they may choose not to attend that,” Aguilar replied. “I don’t think that those are mutually exclusive, and if members don’t want to attend, that is their right and ability.”
But the California Democrat quickly pivoted: “I’d just remind people that the president of Kenya was here a couple weeks ago, and Speaker Johnson said we didn’t have the floor time to invite African leader to address the Congress, but now we have time to throw around a bunch of different dates, some that apparently aren’t going to happen.”
“I think that that was just an unforced error by the Speaker,” Aguilar added.
