Amy Klobuchar Decides to Address AIPAC Conference — via Video

Amy Klobuchar
CNN via GOP War Room/YouTube

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) has decided to address the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) policy conference in Washington, DC, next week — several days after it was reported that she would not attend.

On Wednesday, the Times of Israel reported that neither Klobuchar nor South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg would be attending AIPAC. The news was greeted as a “watershed” by anti-Israel activists — as indeed it was, as it meant that even the so-called “moderate” Democratic Party presidential candidates were staying away from AIPAC.

However, on Friday, AIPAC confirmed that Klobuchar would address the conference — via video, likely because the conference happens to coincide with Super Tuesday, and Klobuchar is fighting to keep her campaign alive.

The only other Democrats currently slated to address the conference are former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who will be appearing in person, and former Vice President Joe Biden, who will provide a video. Bloomberg has a record of support for Israel, including flying to Tel Aviv on Israeli carried El Al during the 2014 war with Hamas to demonstrate the safety of Israel’s Ben-Gurion Airport (in defiance of an Obama administration ban on American carriers landing at the airport).

However, Bloomberg said at the Democrat debate on Tuesday that the U.S. should have extracted concessions from Israel in return for relocating the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, though doing so was already mandated by U.S. law.

Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) have already said that they will not attend, with Sanders adding the bizarre claims that the conference had provided a platform for “bigotry” and opposed a peace deal.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He earned an A.B. in Social Studies and Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard College, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

This post was updated to add Biden’s participation.

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