Biden Hits at Democratic Rivals on Israel: Campaign Update

(Bloomberg) -- Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said it would be “a gigantic mistake” for the U.S. to make aid to Israel conditional on ending settlement building in the West Bank.

“The idea that we withdraw military assistance from Israel on the condition that they change a specific policy, I find being absolutely outrageous,” the former vice president said Thursday in Fort Dodge, Iowa. “I think it’s a gigantic mistake.”

Biden was responding to a reporter’s question about Elizabeth Warren’s suggestion last week that “everything is on the table” if Israel continues to move away from a two-state solution. And Bernie Sanders said this week that aid to Israel should be “used as leverage” with its government to “demand respect for human rights and democracy.”

Pete Buttigiegalso weighed in, saying U.S. aid to Israel shouldn’t be used to promote “annexation” of land or the building of settlements.

While Biden, like Warren and Sanders, opposes the building of settlements, he doesn’t believe any conditions should be put on U.S. aid to Israel. “I hope they misspoke or they were taken out of context,” he said.

Coal Magnate Launches White House Bid (4:15 p.m.)

West Virginia coal magnate Don Blankenship, who served a year in federal prison for misdemeanor safety violations that led to the death of 29 workers in 2010, is running for president.

Blankenship filed a statement with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday establishing a campaign committee. He’s running under the Constitution Party banner, a third party that advocates abolishing real estate taxes, gay conversion therapy and a Muslim travel ban. He ran for Senate in West Virginia in 2018 but lost in the Republican primary.

The 69-year-old Blankenship was the CEO of Massey Energy, once the fourth-largest coal producer in the country. After the Big Branch Mine disaster, Massey was acquired by Alpha Natural Resources Inc., which later declared bankruptcy.

The Constitution Party’s 2016 candidate, Darrell Castle, came in sixth in the popular vote. But the party had some of its biggest success in states that could be close enough to give the party’s candidate a spoiler role, including Pennsylvania, Michigan, Florida and Wisconsin. -- Gregory Korte

GOP Ads Target House Democrats on Impeachment (1:29 p.m.)

The GOP didn’t waste any time trying to make hay of the House Democrats’ vote to begin an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.

Moments after the House’s 232-196 vote -- largely seen as a proxy for the eventual vote to impeach -- a super-PAC that supports House Republicans began an online ad campaign targeting voters in the districts of 29 Democrats who represent areas won by Trump in 2016.

The Congressional Leadership Fund’s ads, which will show up under Google searches for “impeach” or the representatives’ names, say they “just voted for impeachment” and are “with radical Dems not us.”

They direct to a website, impeachmentdemocrats.com, which encourages viewers to sign a petition, a standard way for political campaigns to harvest email addresses and other personal information for further targeting. -- Ryan Teague Beckwith

COMING UP

Fourteen presidential candidates, including Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg are scheduled to speak on Friday at the Liberty and Justice Celebration hosted by the Iowa Democratic Party in Des Moines.

On Saturday, eight Democratic presidential candidates will attend a fish fry in Cedar Rapids hosted by Representative Abby Finkenauer, a first-term member of Congress.

--With assistance from Ryan Teague Beckwith and Gregory Korte.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jennifer Epstein in Washington at jepstein32@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Max Berley, John Harney

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.