Netanyahu will have a mostly GOP audience today |

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In today’s edition … Harris campaign outlines path to victory … How Biden found himself at a loss for the words that so often served him … but first …

Many Democrats plan to go MIA for Netanyahu speech

Scores of Democrats won’t be in attendance today when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers an address before a joint meeting of Congress, in a visit that has been rife with political maneuvering and partisan opposition.

The politics will be quite literally front and center for Netanyahu. He arrives in the United States during a hotly contested campaign just more than three months before Election Day as the Democratic Party is undergoing a major transition. (Netanyahu and his far-right governing coalition are facing their own political strife at home.)

Many Democrats from across the political spectrum are expected to skip the speech and have charged Republicans with using Netanyahu as a prop for political purposes. They say the prime minister’s address to Congress is unproductive, given strained U.S.-Israeli relations as Netanyahu has publicly defied U.S. advice and overtures to bring the 10-month war in Gaza to an end and allow humanitarian aid into the war-torn enclave.

Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, called the speech “political theater” during a Washington Post Live interview yesterday with Leigh Ann.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said “it will be the first time in American history that a war criminal” has been given the “honor” of addressing Congress. The International Criminal Court charged Netanyahu with war crimes.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), a leading Democrat who has been critical of Israel’s handling of the war, won’t attend the speech. He said on the Senate floor that Netanyahu and his far-right government have done “enormous damage” to Netanyahu’s relationship with the United States and the world and that it “sends a terrible message” to welcome him to the Congress.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) has declined to preside over the joint address and won’t attend, either.

Disgruntled Democrats want Netanyahu to commit to a cease-fire, relay a plan for long-term peace and commit to a plan for Gazans to receive abundant humanitarian aid. They have little confidence he will do that today.

House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) isn’t tracking Democratic member attendance and is advising that it’s the members’ prerogative to attend or not.

Many Democrats are boycotting, but others say they’re not changing their plans to be able to attend, such as Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.).

Still, others are planning to walk out mid-speech. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has said he will have any disrupters arrested.

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said she was giving her ticket to family members of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. Her office did not respond to questions about which family she gave her ticket.

Some Democrats, such as Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), are attending reluctantly “out of respect for the State of Israel.”

There will be some Democrats in attendance. Usually lawmakers don’t put out news releases announcing whether they plan to attend. With Netanyahu, they are. Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio) said it is the responsibility of the United States — Democrats and Republicans — to show support for Israel.

Even the process of inviting Netanyahu was fraught. A joint address to Congress is usually agreed to by the four congressional leaders. Johnson, sensing an opening and division within the Democratic Party, publicly floated the idea to pressure Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), who had given a blistering critique of Netanyahu on the Senate floor, calling for new elections to replace him.

A day of protest

Twelve-foot black fencing has been erected around the Capitol for security as U.S. Capitol Police expect “many thousands” of protesters today. Capitol Police arrested dozens of Jewish protesters yesterday in the Cannon House Office Building who said they were “horrified and dismayed” at Netanyahu’s invitation to Congress.

Activists will be joined by some Democratic lawmakers including Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Greg Casar (D-Tex.), in a counterprogramming news conference to challenge Netanyahu’s narrative and urge the Biden administration stop sending offensive weapons to Israel.

All eyes on Harris

Vice President Harris, who is now the likely Democratic presidential nominee, will not be presiding over the speech. Instead, she is continuing with her preplanned trip to Indianapolis. Her aides insist it’s not a reflection of her position on Israel — but it is in line with broad thinking among Democrats who want to make a point by boycotting his address.

And Harris skipping the speech has given fodder to Republicans, who have struggled to land on a cohesive attack against her.

“Madam Vice President, you say you want to be the leader of the free world and yet you can’t bring yourself to sit behind are our most important strategic ally in this moment,” Johnson told reporters yesterday. “That is not a good look for you. It’s not a good look for America. It’s not a good look for her party that she aims to lead.”

But it could be good politics for Harris. As we reported yesterday, frustrated Democrats who voted uncommitted in the primary because of President Biden’s public commitment to Israel have more hope with Harris.

She “has pushed the rest of the Biden administration to more heavily consider Palestinian suffering in its response to Israel’s war in Gaza, lambasting the civilian death toll, calling on Israel to allow more aid into the territory and speaking more forcefully and empathetically than President Biden about the Palestinian plight,” our colleagues Yasmeen Abutaleb and Shane Harris report.

“Harris’s aides and allies stress she believes deeply in Israel’s right to defend itself, noting she addresses it in every speech and that she has carried out the president’s foreign policy. But in several internal meetings and even in public remarks, Harris has raised the Palestinian viewpoint when she felt it was not being adequately considered in discussions and policymaking, multiple current and former White House officials told The Washington Post,” Yasmeen and Shane write.

She and Biden will separately meet with Netanyahu tomorrow.

Harris is expected to tell the Israeli prime minister that it is time for the war to end in a way that keeps Israelis safe, that all hostages should be released and that the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza needs to end, according to an aide for the vice president. They will also discuss efforts to reach a cease-fire.

A huge thanks to Liz Goodwin for help reporting this story.

The campaign

Harris campaign outlines path to victory

Harris’s campaign is out with a four-page memo this morning outlining how she could win the presidential race, which takes place just over 100 days from now.

It argues she can make voter gains beyond what Biden achieved in 2020, particularly by appealing to undecided minority and young voters, and it touts her particular edge on the issue of reproductive rights. It also points to the ground operation she is inheriting from Biden and the massive sums of money she has raised in the past 36 hours.

“This campaign will be close, it will be hard fought, but Vice President Harris is in a position of strength — and she’s going to win,” wrote Jen O’Malley Dillon, the Biden campaign chair.

The memo outlines their path to 270 electoral votes, vowing to still focus on the “blue wall” of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. It also argues that Harris could do particularly well in the Sun Belt states of North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada — states where Biden had seen declining support.

“We intend to play offense in each of these states, and have the resources and campaign infrastructure to do so,” O’Malley Dillon wrote.

Historic flood of cash pours into Harris campaign and allied groups

Now that Harris is the Democratic Party’s likely nominee, weeks of penned up panic among allied groups has given way to a historic flood of campaign cash, The Post’s Michael Scherer, Gerrit De Vynck and Maeve Reston report.

The coordinated Harris campaign reported yesterday that they had raised more than $100 million from 1.1 million donors in the first 41 hours after Biden announced he was stepping aside.

FF PAC, the largest outside group supporting Biden (also known as Future Forward), announced $150 million in commitments in the first 24 hours after Biden’s Sunday afternoon announcement.

“Some of the funds had been withheld during the weeks of concern over Biden’s path to victory after his stumbling, confused performance at a June 27 debate prompted calls to drop out,” our colleagues write. “But major donors and fundraisers reported a newfound energy, both in donations to political groups that report their donations and to nonprofits that do not, which are funding much of the organizing effort in key states that will benefit the Democratic candidacy.”

“A lot of people including myself, we were paralyzed in the last few weeks. A lot of us were not giving money to anything. Now we are seeing the floodgates have opened,” said Ning Mosberger-Tang, a major donor and former executive at Google, who announced plans to host a new fundraiser for Harris in coming weeks.

What we’re watching

The White House

President Biden will deliver a speech tonight from the Oval Office on his decision to end his reelection bid. Biden released a letter Sunday announcing his decision and shortly after endorsed Vice President Harris.

Biden has been recovering from the coronavirus but returned to the White House yesterday. On Monday, he called in to the campaign headquarters during a visit by Harris and said, “You got this.”

On Capitol Hill

House Republican leadership is likely to determine today whether the chamber adjourns this week and leaves town to officially kick off campaign season and begin August recess. Republicans pledged to pass all 12 yearly funding bills when they gained the majority, but their intraparty differences have plagued their ability to meet that goal for two years in a row.

Republicans last night ran into trouble passing the Energy and Water funding bill for fiscal year 2025, pulling it before it would have failed on the floor. If Republicans cannot reach a compromise on that and the Interior Department funding bill today, it’s possible the House leaves Washington for summer break as early as this evening.

At the White House

How Biden found himself at a loss for the words that so often served him

Biden has long viewed himself as an orator and yet has always had a complicated relationship with words, writes our colleague Matt Viser, in this look at how public speaking has long been an organizing element of Biden’s life — and recently led to the end of his reelection bid.

As a child, Biden overcame a stutter by reading Irish poets and practicing conversations ahead of time. He made so much progress that by the time he became a senator, he was praised by colleagues for his rhetorical flourishes.

But during his first presidential campaign, he was accused of stealing someone else’s words and using them as his own. And during his presidency, his aides have tried to ensure he sticks with prepared text rather than veering into the gaffes he has become known for.

“They cut off questions from reporters and try to game out ahead of time what questions might be asked,” Matt writes. “More recently, in a physical manifestation of the type of accommodation they have made for an aging president, they added teleprompters even to his most intimate events, where he speaks to a group of 30 donors in a living room.”

And then, last month, Biden’s bid for reelection was derailed by his inability to find the right words during a disastrous 90-minute debate.

“The man who long prided himself on carefully crafting his words — who has given eulogies and commencement addresses, spoken at political rallies and delivered more Senate floor speeches than anyone could reasonably count — struggled to find the ones he needed, and that failure cost him the right to fight for the job he had long coveted and finally achieved,” Matt writes.

From The Post Live stage

Rep. Smith: I’ve never seen the party so ‘pumped and enthusiastic’

Rep. Adam Smith joins Washington Post Live on Tuesday, July 23. (Video: The Washington Post)

Leigh Ann spoke with Rep. Adam Smith (Wash.), the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, about the following: Netanyahu’s address; Biden’s decision to step aside; why he called for Biden not to run and enthusiasm around Harris’s candidacy; and why he thinks Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) would be the running mate that would provide “the best chance to win.”