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Watch: DNC Delegates Face Off Over Israel

Party platform amended to include Jerusalem—and delegates boo loudly

by
Yair Rosenberg
September 05, 2012
Two delegates vote no to the motion.(BuzzFeed)
Two delegates vote no to the motion.(BuzzFeed)

On the floor of the Democratic National Convention, DNC Chair and L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa just attempted to reinstate references to God and Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, which had both been controversially excised. Revised language was projected up on a screen and Villaraigosa called for a two-thirds voice vote approval from the delegates. This is what happened:

What is clear—as many reporters in the hall tweeted immediately afterwards—is that even if the ayes did have it, they didn’t have close to the required two-thirds majority. As The Washington Post’s Charles Lane quipped, “Villaraigosa [the DNC chair] got political training in East Germany? The nos had it all 3 times.” Already, Democratic surrogates are distancing themselves from the event on TV, with former Clinton advisor and current party strategist Paul Begala calling it “beyond awkward,” “stupid” and an “unforced error” on CNN.

We’ll keep you posted as this story develops.

UPDATE: A Democratic source emails to say, “The President personally intervened to strengthen the language.” It’s a pretty dramatic piece of damage control. We’ll be watching the convention speeches tonight and tomorrow to see if the campaign tries to distance themselves from the debacle in them as well.

UPDATE: Both CBS and the AP are reporting that President Obama intervened in changing the party platform.

Yair Rosenberg is a senior writer at Tablet. Subscribe to his newsletter, listen to his music, and follow him on Twitter and Facebook.