Elizabeth Warren, Surrogates Dodge Debate Question on Jerusalem Embassy

CHARLESTON, South Carolina — Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) would not answer a question during the Democrat debate Tuesday night about the U.S. embassy in Israel in Jerusalem — nor would her surrogates.

The moderators asked Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg whether they would move the embassy back to Tel Aviv, even though Israel considers Jerusalem its capital. Sanders said it was “something that we would take into consideration,” while Bloomberg — normally considered pro-Israel — said that while the embassy could not be moved again, the U.S. should have extracted concessions from Israel in return.

But at least they answered the question. Warren would not even provide an answer about that simple question:

Major Garrett, CBS News: But, Senator Warren, just on the question of the embassy, what was your position on that?

Warren: It is not ours to do.

Garrett: Would you move it back?

Warren: It is not ours to do. We should let the parties determine the capital.

Garrett: Would you move it back or not, yes or no?

Klobuchar: It’s our embassy.

Warren: We should let the parties determine the capitals themselves.

In the spin room after the debate, Breitbart News asked Warren’s surrogates to explain her answer, and what the campaign’s policy on the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem actually was. They did not answer, and attempted to claim — incorrectly, as the transcript above shows — that Warren was asked about Israel’s capital, not about the embassy.

Matt Perdie / Breitbart News

The evasion was so obvious that a reporter from ABC News followed up on Breitbart News’ question. She received the same answer.

Warren has promised anti-Israel activists to end the “occupation”; many Palestinian activists consider all of Israel to be “occupied territory.” Warren has also pledged not to attend the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) policy conference next week, a bipartisan occasion featuring pro-Israel legislators.

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.