Democratic Rep. Madeleine Dean (Pa.) met with the pro-Hamas advocacy group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, before announcing her boycott of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s joint address to Congress, she said Wednesday.
In an interview on CNN, Dean said she met with Palestinian groups and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) regarding Netanyahu’s address, scheduled for 2 p.m. on Wednesday. "They are baffled by Mr. Netanyahu’s attendance today," she said. "How could he in the face of the inhumanity that is going on in Gaza and in the West Bank, how could he be here in this politically fraught moment?"
CAIR appeared to take credit for Dean’s decision, writing after the meeting that Dean "meets with CAIR representatives and says she will boycott Netanyahu's address to Congress."
.@RepDean meets with concerned community leaders and says she will skip Netanyahu's address to Congress. @CAIRPhilly pic.twitter.com/2YoHLigU28
— CAIR National (@CAIRNational) July 24, 2024
Dean's consultations with CAIR come as other Democrats have distanced themselves from the group over its praise for Hamas. CAIR executive director Nihad Awad said in November he was "happy to see" Hamas’s invasion of Israel on October 7, and that Israel did not have a "right to self-defense." The White House denounced Awad’s "antisemitic" remarks, and kicked CAIR off of its "National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism."
Last week, Awad said reports that Iran planned to assassinate former president Donald Trump was actually an "Israeli plot" to rope the United States into another war in the Middle East.
Dean, who was elected to Congress in 2018, joins dozens of other Democrats in skipping Netanyahu’s speech. Vice President Kamala Harris, former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, and members of the anti-Israel "Squad" will skip the address, Netanyahu’s first since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack.
A spokesman for Dean said she did not discuss Hamas during her meeting with CAIR officials, and that she has "been consistent and clear of her position on Hamas and their actions on October 7th and since." The spokesman, Tim Mack, said Dean has met with the families of Hamas's hostages, and also "advocates for the end of Palestinian suffering."