Kamala Harris, dozens of lawmakers sit out Netanyahu speech to Congress

• Kamala Harris and more than 30 Capitol Hill lawmakers are not planning to attend Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's fourth address to a joint meeting of Congress.
• Netanyahu's visit to Washington comes over nine months into the Israel-Hamas war, which has sowed deep polarization into the U.S. political landscape.
• Netanyahu is meeting with President Joe Biden, Vice President Harris and the top lawmakers in Congress during his Washington visit.

Vice President Kamala Harris and more than 30 Capitol Hill lawmakers are not planning to attend Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address to a joint meeting of Congress on Wednesday afternoon.

It is Netanyahu's fourth address to Congress, the last of which took place in March 2015.

This year, nine months into the Israel-Hamas war and the resulting humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Netanyahu's speech has become a lightning rod of controversy, triggering an eruption of protests in Washington. Roughly 200 protesters were arrested on Tuesday for a sit-in demonstration in Congress' Cannon House Office Building.

Harris' absence from Netanyahu's speech is a conspicuous departure from tradition, though it is not wholly unprecedented.

Typically, the vice president presides over a joint congressional session, but Harris is on the campaign trail Wednesday as the newly minted Democratic front-runner to secure the party's presidential nomination. Former President Donald Trump's running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, is also skipping the speech due to his "duties to fulfill as the Republican nominee for Vice President," a Trump campaign official told NBC News.

In the vice president's absence, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., would usually take her place as the president pro tempore of the