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At past Netroots conferences, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was booed and Black Lives Matter protesters disrupted a presidential candidate forum in 2016.

Biden acknowledged the importance of turning out even reluctant progressives in 2020, when he told that year’s all-virtual Netroots conference in a taped address, “I badly need you.”

In the interview Monday, Jayapal noted her comments at the Netroots Nation event came as she’d tried to defend fellow Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Illinois, who had unsuccessfully tried to assure chanting protesters who interrupted the event that she, too, is a vocal critic of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.

Jayapal, D-Seattle, the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, made international headlines with her comments over the weekend while trying to talk down pro-Palestine protesters who had interrupted a panel discussion at the Netroots Nation convention in Chicago.

The rift burst into public view over the weekend when Representative Pramila Jayapal, a Washington Democrat who leads the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said at a conference of the liberal Netroots Nation that Israel “is a racist state,” leading to a swift condemnation from House Democratic leaders that prompted her to walk back the comment.