Jacob Kornbluh, a politics reporter for the news site Jewish Insider, shared the clip of Pence’s interaction with Netanyahu on his Twitter account Thursday morning.
In the clip, Netanyahu could be seen walking up to and greeting the vice president and second lady Karen Pence at the World Holocaust Forum in Jerusalem. As Kornbluh noted in the tweet, Pence spoke on how Trump is doing in light of his impeachment in December and the ongoing trial in the U.S. Senate.
“We are contending,” the vice president said after he and Netanyahu exchanged some words that were not captured by the microphone. “He’s unstoppable. Like somebody else I know.”
Newsweek contacted the White House for comment or clarification about Pence’s words to the prime minister, but did not receive a reply before publication.
Kornbluh noted that the exchange was caught on a “hot mic”—that is, a microphone that amplifies the sound of words that were intended to be private.
Kornbluh told Newsweek in an email that the clip came from the official livestream of the World Holocaust Forum, and that he caught it while leaders were arriving for the event.
Pence was in Jerusalem on Thursday to attend the 2020 World Holocaust Forum. This is an event held at Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem, the State of Israel’s official memorial for victims of the Holocaust. According to Yad Vashem’s website, the event is titled “Remembering the Holocaust: Fighting Antisemitism,” and is being held to discuss how to best combat antisemitism and to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1945 as well as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The Guardian reported that more than 45 world leaders were slated to attend the event, including Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Because he was attending the event in Israel, Pence will presumably miss the third day of Trump’s impeachment trial in Washington, D.C. The president was impeached in December for obstructing Congress and abuse of power. Pelosi and House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff led impeachment proceedings against the president, which began after a whistleblower reported a phone call Trump made in July. In the call, he asked the Ukrainian government to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter, who sat on the board of a Ukranian gas company. Joe Biden is currently campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination in hopes to unseat Trump during the November 2020 general election.
As the Constitution dictates, after an official is impeached, a trial for them is held by the Senate, which decides whether or not that official will be removed. The president’s trial began Tuesday afternoon and is ongoing.
Netanyahu, like Trump, has faced problems in his own country. The Israeli prime minister was indicted in November for “bribery, fraud and breach of trust.”
