The White House has grown anxious about Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming address to a joint session of Congress, believing the Israeli prime minister could use the forum to criticize President Joe Biden for not supporting the retaliation against Hamas in Gaza enough.

The speech next month could create a diplomatically complicated and politically dicey spectacle for a president running for reelection. Fears among West Wing aides have grown in recent days as Netanyahu has made a series of public statements — including one in a video address delivered in English — accusing the administration of withholding more military aid than has been publicly disclosed.

“[Netanyahu’s] video this week was not helpful at all,” said one senior official, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about internal deliberations. “And he could make it far worse up there in front of Congress.”

Another senior official put it more bluntly: “No one knows what he’s going to say.”

Frictions have deepened between Biden and Netanyahu since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, with Biden aides increasingly believing that the Israeli leader is prolonging the conflict to stay in power — and that he would prefer Donald Trump return to the White House. And the war has created a thorny political dilemma for Biden, who has been slammed by Republicans for insufficiently supporting Israel yet at the same time also taken heat from some members of his own party for not protecting Palestinian civilians.

But the accusations lobbed by Netanyahu over the past few days have put the relationship at a new nadir, taking the West Wing by surprise and leaving Biden aides deeply frustrated, according to the officials. The Biden administration postponed a high-level U.S.-Israel meeting on Iran after the release of Netanyahu’s video.

“We genuinely do not know what he’s talking about,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said this week. She, and other aides, insisted that only one shipment was paused, with no other changes to weapons transfers.

As of this week, the White House had yet to send an invitation for Netanyahu to meet with Biden when he comes to Washington for his scheduled speech on July 24, according to the first senior official and two others. Those officials stressed that such an invitation will likely be offered — noting that it would be a major slap in the face if the two leaders did not meet and that Biden was not inclined to make such a public rebuke of his Israeli counterpart.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the invitation.

But meetings have been taking place at slightly lower levels. Israeli national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi and Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer met Thursday at the White House with national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The group discussed the war against Hamas, the state of Gaza and Netanyahu’s forthcoming visit. The video — and the rancor it caused in Washington — was briefly mentioned, two U.S. officials said.

Matthew Miller, the State Department spokesperson, hinted at the message Blinken delivered in the meeting.

“I don’t think it’s productive to engage in an intense public back and forth about this,” he told reporters Thursday, adding that Blinken in a meeting with Netanyahu last week assured the prime minister “our commitment to Israel’s security is sacrosanct.”

Inside the West Wing, aides believe that Netanyahu will use the congressional speech to address his audience at home as much as in the U.S., according to one of the senior officials. The prime minister will likely express gratitude for the United States’ help and stress the longstanding alliance between the two nations. But aides also anticipate that Netanyahu will ask for more assistance without any conditions — something they suspect will be icily received by Democrats.

The big unknown, the senior official admitted, is if Netanyahu will use the moment to offer any specific criticisms of Biden or his response to Israel’s operations in Gaza. The West Wing is keenly aware of Netanyahu’s precarious domestic political situation, in which he is trying to placate the far-right members of his coalition who want further escalation of the war against Hamas. For the prime minister, being perceived at home as fighting Biden could be helpful.

Airing his grievances about arms transfers with the Biden administration openly, Netanyahu told Punchbowl News in an interview published Friday, “was absolutely necessary after months of quiet conversation that did not solve the problem.”

“I’m not a partisan, I’m not a Republican or a Democrat. I’m an Israeli patriot, and I speak on behalf of the Israeli people,” he continued.

Netanyahu has used speeches to Congress for his political purposes before, infuriating the Obama-Biden White House when he addressed a joint session in 2015 to attack that administration’s proposed Iran nuclear deal.

That 2015 speech was not received well by progressive Democrats, who have only grown more critical of Netanyahu since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war. Democrats have chastised the Israeli PM for disregarding humanitarian concerns in Gaza and empowering a far-right government in Israel.

“I didn’t attend last time, for obvious reasons,” said Rep. Andre Carson (D-Ind.). “I think that Americans are becoming more deeply concerned about what is being done to taxpayer dollars as it relates to what’s happening in that region.”

Some progressives, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), have indicated they will skip the late July speech.

Shadowing the address is the long-term status of U.S. aid to Israel. The White House helped shepherd a massive weapons package through Congress and has consistently signed off on additional arms shipments. But it withheld a shipment of 3,500 bombs believing they would cause unnecessary devastation if used on the densely populated city of Rafah.

Around that time, House Republicans invited Netanyahu to speak before Congress. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a strong Israel supporter but a vocal Netanyahu critic, dropped initial reservations about the address and assented to the invitation. “The White House was not surprised by the invitation,” said a Schumer spokesperson.

A year ago, Netanyahu sought a White House meeting with Biden in the midst of a backlash at home to his proposal to overhaul Israel’s judicial system. The president, who had spoken out against the changes, declined, and instead met with the Israeli prime minister on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

Not even three weeks later, Hamas terrorists stormed over the Israeli border, propelling the region into war and irrevocably changing the dynamic between the two leaders.

SYRACUSE, New York — A purple district in upstate New York that’s crucial for Democrats to retake the House has a major problem — the party has repeatedly botched contests that they should have won.

This time incumbent Brandon Williams is arguably the most vulnerable Republican in the chamber, representing a district then-candidate Joe Biden won by 12 points. Yet the Democratic Party has long struggled to win the House seat here, including two in which their candidates entered as heavy favorites.

But with only a handful of truly competitive, flippable seats this cycle, this is a race they can’t afford to lose.

State Sen. John Mannion and Dewitt Town Councilor Sarah Klee Hood are facing off next week to determine who will challenge Williams. And top of voters’ minds is not crime or the Middle East or any other issue dominating the political discourse this presidential cycle. Instead, they are zeroing in on who is least likely to fumble the ball in November.

“Democrats across the board have realized that this race has gotten screwed up a lot over the years,” Syracuse City Auditor Alex Marion said. “People really want to make sure we get this right, because the road to this perilously close House majority could run right through Central New York.”

Democrats are no strangers to losing must-win contests in this district: Their nominees have lost each of the past five competitive races held here. The party needs to pick up four seats in November to retake the House, and New York — where Republicans gained ground on their road to power two years ago — is home to an estimated six swing seats this cycle.

Electability is always an issue in primaries. But it’s been placed on the backburner in most recent major Democratic primaries in New York, overshadowed instead by ideological battles between the center and far left.

Here, it’s at the center of every message.

“I am a short, feisty, energetic, overqualified woman,” Klee Hood said during the candidates’ first debate. “I excite voters — every single race that I’ve been in, I have overperformed. We need that type of voter turnout in November.”

“I’ve got a proven electoral record,” Mannion said after casting a ballot on the first day of early voting. “I’ve won tough elections, I know what it’s like. I’m the only Democratic senator who currently has a district with more registered Republicans.”

Unlike other New York primaries next week, there’s minimal daylight between the candidates on policy issues. The closest they’ve come to a major disagreement is on abortion — Mannion supports New York’s Reproductive Health Act, which was enthusiastically backed by groups like Planned Parenthood, while Klee Hood argues this doesn’t go far enough since it still requires a doctor’s approval for third trimester procedures. So both candidates have spent far more time highlighting their resumes and arguing that they’ll best appeal to voters in November.

Klee Hood, an Air Force veteran, says her familiarity with national issues sets her apart from an opponent with state-level experience.

“Republicans know Brandon Williams is weakest when Democrats nominate a veteran and a woman in the post-Roe era,” she said in an interview.

Mannion is a former teacher, a fact he highlights in practically every other sentence on the campaign trail.

“We are on a path right now that we have to change,” he said. “It takes true leadership and courage. It takes a teacher to be able to do that.”

Mannion’s experience teaching has been key to his political success in recent years. In 2018, he launched the most serious campaign in generations by a Democrat in a long-time Republican stronghold, managed to flip the seat in 2020, and held on by 10 votes out of 123,000 cast in 2022.

The New York State United Teachers has spent as much as $1.2 million boosting his campaigns in the past. Two of its national counterparts have combined to spend $300,000 on purchases like TV ads boosting Mannion — practically the only super PAC spending in the primary. That has helped him close a fundraising gap, with Klee Hood’s campaign outraising him $1.4 million to $900,000.

“He is one of our own, and we would love to send him to Washington, as much as we love him in the state Senate,” New York State United Teachers president Melinda Person said.

NYSUT usually focuses on state races while leaving congressional contests to its national counterparts, but worked to boost the national unions’ efforts in the primary and would very likely go all-out for Mannion if he winds up on the November ballot: “We’re running an ambitious member-to-member campaign,” Person said. “We have tens of thousands of members in the district.”

The district has been in Republican hands since John Katko won in 2014. Katko quickly developed enough of a record of bipartisanship to let him be the rare New York Republican who could hold onto a swing district during the “blue wave.”

He announced his retirement in early 2022, around the time it was becoming clear Democrats planned to gerrymander his district into a solidly-blue seat. The courts wound up rejecting that gerrymander, and Williams was able to eke out a 1 point victory.

Democrats have since redrawn the district again, making it 2 points friendlier than it was in 2022. And they’re confident that Williams’ tenure — which includes moments such as a brief refusal to forego a paycheck in a potential government shutdown — will provide plenty of fodder for ads.

Forecasters have unanimously agreed with this assessment. Roll Call has labeled Williams the country’s most vulnerable House Republican, The Cook Political Report has identified the district as the only Republican-held seat in the country that “leans Democrat,” and Sabato’s Crystal Ball makes that one of only two GOP seats with the “lean Democratic” label.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has already opened a field office in the district with the hope of quickly pivoting to general election mode once the primary is over.

“No matter what the outcome is Tuesday night, we need to get our act together Wednesday morning,” said Marion, who has endorsed Mannion but has “nothing ill to say about” Klee Hood. “Because the general election starts immediately.”

LOUISA, Virginia — No matter who wins Tuesday’s GOP primary battle between the leader of the conservative Freedom Caucus Rep. Bob Good and Virginia state Sen. John McGuire, the results will reverberate among House Republicans.

If Good goes down, he would be the first sitting chair in the influential group’s nearly decade-long history to be defeated — a loss that would embolden critics of the increasingly fractious bloc.

But if he wins, he’ll have done it despite strong opposition from former (and possibly future) President Donald Trump and only mild backing from Republican leaders, including House Speaker Mike Johnson — signaling friction ahead. “Mike Johnson has done nothing to help me in my race,” Good said in a Friday interview after campaigning outside the Louisa County courthouse.

McGuire boasts the backing of more than a half-dozen high-profile colleagues of Good’s in the House GOP. And after telling supporters outside the courthouse on Friday that McGuire and his backers misled Trump to win the former president’s support, Good said in an interview: “There’s people in the [former] president’s ear who have their own agenda, and they’re dishonest, and they’ve lied to him about me.”

He wouldn’t elaborate on the nature of those alleged lies beyond claiming he’s consistently supported Trump since 2016; Trump has made clear that Good’s early backing of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) in the presidential primary helped prompt his endorsement of McGuire.

Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.), a Freedom Caucus member who’s backing Good, said that if Good’s opponents are “able to take out the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, it will send a definite message to other conservatives that want [to] challenge the status quo and make big moves.”

But if Good survives McGuire’s challenge, his allies predict he’ll emerge from the fight even more emboldened. Good may even have time to exact revenge should McGuire win the primary — there’s still a lot of legislating left to do this Congress and a lot of opportunities for him to cause trouble for the party’s fractured two-vote House majority.

In the run-up to primary day, the district was blanketed by competing Good vs. McGuire events. More than two dozen Hill GOP staffers led by Rep. William Timmons (R-S.C.) chartered a bus from Washington on Saturday to meet with and campaign for McGuire, a former Navy SEAL.

It was an unorthodox move by Timmons, but a clear revenge play. Good had backed the primary challenger Timmons defeated just a few days prior, so the South Carolina lawmaker decided to personally tell Virginia voters about their representative’s polarizing reputation within his party.

Among quite a few GOP colleagues, Good is nicknamed “Bob Bad” for what they call his abrasive criticism of fellow Republicans, and the blowback he’s received lately is a testament to the number of colleagues who consider themselves enemies. Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy — whom Good voted to oust last fall — and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) are among the Republican players backing McGuire.

The most talked-about McGuire endorser, of course, is the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Trump’s campaign sent a cease-and-desist letter last month seeking to block Good’s campaign from putting the two men’s names together on signs. But the Good team kept using and touting signs with Trump’s name — to criticism from McGuire, who said in an interview that Good is trying to “trick people.”

Asked about the flap over his Trump-themed signs, Good replied: “I’m not talking about stupid topics. That’s a stupid topic.”

He may be onto something among his local base. Three Good supporters at his event, including Louisa Mayor Garland Nuckols, lauded the incumbent’s willingness to fight for conservative principles and largely shrugged off the attacks on Good from the former president they support. Good’s supporters in the district include a strong contingent of local elected officials in the district McGuire represents in the state Senate.

A group of 24 Virginia GOP leaders led by Rick Buchanan, chair of the 5th District Republican Congressional Committee, have “strongly urged” Trump to reconsider his backing of McGuire over Good.

McGuire countered that some of those Good endorsements are retribution from state officials he hadn’t supported during their own contested races.

“I have focused more on getting the people to endorse me,” McGuire said in a Saturday interview. “Like Trump — he goes for the common man.”

The list of recriminations between the two Republican campaigns gets longer still: Good supporters ding McGuire for declining to debate and accuse him of being a ladder-climber who jumped quickly from his state Senate seat to challenging Good.

McGuire, who ran for a House seat in 2020 against Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) before dropping out, said he was encouraged to take on Good while on the campaign trail for state Senate.

“The whole time I’m campaigning, people are like this,” McGuire said, pulling on his own shirt sleeve for effect. “‘I know you are running for state Senate, but you are the only guy who [can] beat that guy. He’s a tyrant. He’s really mean.”

The race for the south central Virginia district has drawn a whopping $14.5 million in ad spending, mostly from super PACs. That includes some tied to allies of McCarthy, who went after Good as part of a nationwide vengeance push against the fellow Republicans who voted to end his speakership.

Good’s allies have spent roughly $5.4 million, while pro-McGuire forces have spent $7.5 million, according to data from the media tracking firm AdImpact. McGuire’s campaign has spent nearly $1.5 million on ads, while Good has spent only a few thousand dollars on radio spots.

McGuire has tried to leverage his big advantage on TV to stress his Trump endorsement in a district that the former president won by more than 8 points in 2020. It is also mentioned often on his campaign materials, including T-shirts and signs.

And while Good is trying to portray the race as the establishment “swamp” attacking a conservative who fought it, he’s also avoided acknowledging his own role in his current predicament — specifically, his repeated willingness to do the exact sort of Republican-versus-Republican campaigning that he’s criticizing his own colleagues for.

Good has also sought to portray any attacks on him as attacks on the Freedom Caucus and its policies.

Members like Timmons disagree. To them, it’s personal.

“It is not because I don’t agree with Bob Good on policies,” Timmons said last week, ahead of his door-knocking trip to Good’s district. “It is because of his tactics. Such a critical part of this job is earning your colleagues’ respect and their trust. And he is a bad advocate because of his tactics, not because of his policies.”

Ally Mutnick contributed to this report.

SEATTLE — Former Rep. George Nethercutt, who was a Spokane lawyer with little political experience when he ousted Democratic Speaker of the House Tom Foley as part of a stunning GOP wave that shifted national politics to the right in 1994, has died. He was 79.

Nethercutt died Friday near Denver of progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare, neurodegenerative brain disease, his son said in an email Monday.

“He lived a life based in faith, family, community, and service, never sacrificing his principles as a statesman,” Elliott Nethercutt wrote.

The 1994 midterm elections, which came halfway through President Bill Clinton’s first term, were a resounding victory for Republicans, who won control of both houses of Congress for the first time since the early 1950s.

Nethercutt was the chairman of the Spokane County Republican Party and had served in the 1970s as chief of staff to Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens but had not run for office before challenging Foley.

Foley had represented the district for 30 years — the last five as speaker of the House. Nethercutt’s campaign ads focused on Foley’s opposition to term limits and pointed out that Foley had been in office since “Bonanza” was the top show on television.

Foley was the first speaker to lose a reelection bid since 1860.

Nethercutt joined other 1994 GOP candidates in signing the Contract With America, a list of conservative priorities promoted by Rep. Newt Gingrich and others. Among those priorities was adopting term limits; Nethercutt said he’d serve no more than three terms but broke that promise and served five before he gave up the seat to make an unsuccessful run against Democratic Sen. Patty Murray in 2004.

“George Nethercutt was a giant amongst men who served the people of Eastern Washington with honor and patriotism for a decade,” Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who now holds Nethercutt’s former seat, said in a Facebook post. “George was a man of character who led with kindness and conviction, and he was a person I proudly looked up to long before the day I was sworn in to represent the Fifth District we shared such a love for.”

Among his priorities in office were finding new international markets for farm products from eastern Washington, securing federal money for Fairchild Air Force Base, and supporting research grants to Washington State University.

Like many other Republicans elected in the 1994 wave, he had a conservative voting record and supported impeaching Clinton for lying about his affair with Monica Lewinsky.

He became a lobbyist following his tenure in Congress and worked with his George Nethercutt Foundation, which advanced civics education through scholarships, competitions and educational trips to Washington.

Nethercutt attended memorial services for Foley when he died in 2013, and two years ago, he joined the advisory board of Washington State University’s Thomas S. Foley Institute for Public Policy and Public Service.

He also established a fund at the university to create the George Nethercutt Endowed Lecture Series on Civic Engagement.

“Since 2008, my foundation has promoted civic education among students, so they are prepared to engage with our democratic system — a system that depends on the participation of informed citizens, open dialogue, and compromise to function properly,” Nethercutt said at the time.

Nethercutt was born in Spokane in 1944 and graduated from Washington State University before graduating from Gonzaga University School of Law in 1971. As a law school student, he briefly clerked for Foley’s father, Ralph Foley, who was a Spokane County Superior Court judge.

Nethercutt is survived by his wife, Mary Beth Nethercutt, whom he married in 1977; two children, Meredith Nethercutt Krisher and Elliott Nethercutt; sister Nancy Nethercutt Gustafson; brother John Irving Nethercutt; and granddaughter Holly Beth Krisher.