Exclusive: Mike Johnson says Schumer will sign letter inviting Netanyahu to give joint address to Congress

House Speaker Mike Johnson told The Independent that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer would sign a letter inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to deliver a joint address to Congress.

Mr Johnson had previously pushed the Democratic leader of the United States Senate to sign a letter allowing Mr Netanyahu to deliver a joint address to Congress.

But after votes on Wednesday, he said that Mr Schumer had agreed to do so.

“I spoke with him today and he’s going to sign the letter jointly and it’ll get out to the prime minister this week,” Mr Johnson told The Independent.

The speaker said he did not have a date set at the moment.

“No, I’m going to talk about prime minister Netanyahu about that today,” he said.

The invitation will come despite the fact that Mr Schumer has previously called for new elections in Israel and criticised Israel’s execution of its war against Hamas in Gaza.

But Mr Johnson and Mr Schumer--along with nearly every major elected official leader in Washington--condemned the top prosecutor for the International Criminal Court’s announcement that he would seek arrest warrants against Mr Netanyahu, as well as Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and senior Hamas officials.

But the Biden administration said it had not been made aware of such a visit.

“So we have not at this point heard from the Prime Minister on a joint address to the Congress, the president talks to the prime minister in fact, he just talked to him not too long ago, senior administration officials engaged with him I just did so over the weekend,” National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters. “So we'll stay in touch with the prime minister and obviously we'll stay in touch with the Congress and see what