© Win McNamee/Getty Images President Donald Trump claps during the State of the Union address on January 30, 2018.
President
Trump is expected to call for more bipartisan cooperation in his State of the
Union address Tuesday night as he stands before a Congress bitterly divided
over his demand for border-wall funding that resulted in a 35-day partial
government shutdown.
The
nationally televised 9 p.m. address in the House chamber — which was delayed a
week after Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) withdrew an initial
invitation during the shutdown — will offer Trump a chance to
showcase his immigration proposals. But aides say he will also highlight areas
where he hopes to forge consensus, including around infrastructure projects and
cutting the cost of prescription drugs.
Stacey Abrams,
the Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Georgia last year, is set to give her
party’s response.
Posturing
over Trump’s speech — and what it means for him at this point in his presidency
— began long before his scheduled trip to Capitol Hill on Tuesday.
1:05 p.m.: Pelosi using Trump’s speech to raise money
In
an email solicitation hours before she was scheduled to welcome Trump to the
House chamber, Pelosi said she was seeking to raise $200,000 “to make his
second State of the Union completely backfire.”
The
email sought donations for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee,
which aims to elect Democrats to the House.
“In
the year since Trump last delivered a State of the Union Address we’ve seen his
vision for the country firsthand,” the solicitation said. “He’s threatened the
integrity of the Russia investigation, separated families at our border,
doubled down on his ineffective and expensive border wall, and attacked
everyone who dares to disagree with him.”
“And
I’ll be honest, that’s just the very tip of the iceberg,” Pelosi continued.
“Which is why I have an ambitious plan — $200,000 in the door before his big
speech — to make his second State of the Union Address completely backfire.”
12:30 p.m.: Sen. Kennedy invites custodian from Senate
office building
Sen.
John Neely Kennedy (R-La.) announced that his guest for the address will be
Justina Pettway, a custodian in the Russell Senate Office Building.
“Justina
is such a joy to see in the hallways around Russell,” Kennedy said in a statement.
“Her smile can light up a room and light up your day. She also works very hard
and is good at her job.”
This
is the second consecutive year that Kennedy has invited someone who
participates in the Goodwill of Greater Washington’s AbilityOne program, which
helps people with disabilities find employment.
12:20 p.m.: Steve King’s guest is Diamond of Diamond &
Silk
Rep.
Steve King (R-Iowa), whose comments on race have generated
controversy, announced that his guest for the address will be
Diamond, half of the duo Diamond & Silk.
The
two African American women, whose real names are Lynnette Hardaway and Rochelle
Richardson, are frequent guests on the Fox News Channel, offering conservative
commentary supportive of Trump.
King
said that since he can bring only one guest, there was a coin toss. Diamond
prevailed over Silk.
12:15 p.m.: Pelosi’s guests include active duty
transgender Army officers
House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced her guests for the address. They
include two active duty transgender Army officers — an implicit critique of
Trump’s decision to implement a ban on transgender service members.
Captain
Jennifer Peace and Major Ian Brown represent the pro-trans people activist
groups OutServe-Servicemembers Legal Defense Network and SPARTA.
Also
attending will be several guests highlighting the fight against gun violence,
including Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jaime was killed last year in the
shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.; Charlie
Mirsky, a Parkland student who has organized the March for Our Lives campaign;
and Mattie Scott, an activist with the Brady Campaign in Pelosi’s hometown of
San Francisco.
Leana
Wen, who was named Planned Parenthood president last year, will also attend as
Pelosi’s guest amid a new uproar from conservatives over Democratic state
lawmakers’ attempts to expand abortion rights in New York and Virginia.
Highlighting
the Democratic stance on immigration policy, Pelosi has invited Angelica Salas,
the executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los
Angeles, and José Andrés, a Washington-based chef who has been an outspoken
supporter of immigrant rights and has led relief efforts in Puerto Rico after
Hurricane Maria in 2017. Another celebrity chef with roots in the Bay Area,
Tyler Florence, is also attending as Pelosi’s guest.
Several
political allies of the speaker will also be in attendance, including
Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser
(D), and Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, the chief executive and co-founder of
MomsRising, an activist network focused on women’s issues.
Also
attending are two top Democratic officials from New Jersey — Lt. Gov. Sheila
Oliver and State Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg — who gathered signatures
for a letter by female leaders in that state supporting Pelosi’s election as
speaker. Their support helped convince several newly elected House members from
New Jersey at a time when Pelosi’s return to the speakership was not assured.
The
leaders of several major labor unions — the National Education Association, the
United Steelworkers, the Service Employees International Union, the United
Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, and the AFL-CIO — are also
attending, as are Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, and daughter Alexandra Pelosi.
12 p.m.: Trump lunching with broadcast and cable news
anchors
Trump
plans to keep with tradition and have an off-the-record lunch at the White
House on Tuesday with broadcast and cable television news anchors.
Such
lunches have long been held during the afternoon of a president’s State of the
Union address. Despite his hostility toward the media — whom he has called “the
enemy of the people” — Trump is moving forward with the lunch, according to
people who have been invited.
11:50 a.m.: Most Senate Republicans have low expectations
for Trump’s address
The
Post’s Robert Costa reports from Cups, the Senate coffee shop, that most Senate
Republicans have low expectations for Tuesday night’s address.
“Privately,
several say [Trump is] boxed in by his own decisions and an unwavering Pelosi,”
Costa tweeted. “He may want to go big, one says, but he hasn’t shown an ability
to do so.”
11:45 a.m.: Glenn Beck to attend Trump’s address
The
conservative political commentator Glenn Beck will attend the State of the
Union address Tuesday as the guest of Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.).
Massie
said in a text message that he invited Beck “because of his independence and to
show my appreciation for his commitment to get the facts out” about the
students at Covington Catholic High School in Massie’s district who found
themselves at the center of a media firestorm last month after a heated episode
at the Lincoln Memorial.
Beck
defended the students repeatedly on his program, which airs online, via radio
syndication and on TheBlaze TV network, saying their encounter with a Native
American activist and a group of Black Israelites had been wildly
mischaracterized by the national media and urging his listeners and viewers to
support them.
“Glenn
said he’s been invited several times before and has always declined, so I’m
honored that he accepted my invite,” Massie added. “Should be fun.”
Beck tweeted Monday night from
a room at President Trump’s D.C. hotel, where he noted Massie’s invitation and
praised the accommodations: “I’ve stayed at many Trump hotels, this is his best
IMHO.”
11:30 a.m.: Schumer fires back at Trump, calls promises of
unity empty
Senate
Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) fired back at Trump about an hour
after the president criticized him for panning a speech that had yet to be
delivered.
“Thanks
for watching my speech,” Schumer wrote, “but you must have missed this line:
‘Even more empty than his policy promises are President Trump’s calls each year
for unity.’ ”
Schumer
made a speech on the Senate floor on Tuesday in which he said “the state of our
union is in need of drastic repair.”
That
prompted a tweet from Trump noting his remarks and needling Schumer for
Democratic losses in last year’s Senate elections.
11 a.m.: McConnell says the union is ‘strong and growing
stronger’
Senate
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) took to the Senate floor in advance of
Trump’s speech and said the nation has made real progress under Trump despite
“Beltway melodrama.”
“From
historic tax reform and regulatory reform, to huge progress in the fight
against ISIS, to landmark progress in the nationwide fight against opioid
addiction, the story of the last two years has been one of immense policy
progress for our nation,” McConnell said, using a different term for the
Islamic State. “The American people are less interested in Beltway melodrama
and more interested in that classic question — ‘Am I better off than I was two
years ago?’ And on this front — thanks to a few key Republican victories and a
number of major bipartisan accomplishments, the state of our union is strong
and growing stronger.”
10:50 a.m.: Harris to deliver response to Trump’s speech —
before he speaks
Sen.
Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.), who is seeking the 2020 Democratic presidential
nomination, announced that she would deliver remarks before Trump speaks.
“In
her remarks, Senator Harris will push back on the President’s expected message
of division, highlight the importance of speaking truth, and outline her vision
for a country that works for all its people,” an advisory said.
Former
Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams is delivering the official
Democratic response, which will be nationally televised.
Harris
is scheduled to speak on Facebook Live at 7:45 p.m.
In
addition, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) plans to deliver a live-streamed response
to Trump on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter after the president’s remarks.
10:30 a.m.: Trump pushes back against Schumer criticism
Hours
before a speech in which he will call for more bipartisanship, Trump needled
Schumer for losing Democratic seats in last year’s elections.
“I
see Schumer is already criticizing my State of the Union speech, even though he
hasn’t seen it yet,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “He’s just upset that he didn’t
win the Senate, after spending a fortune, like he thought he would. Too bad we
weren’t given more credit for the Senate win by the media!”
Trump’s
tweet came minutes after Schumer went on the Senate floor to speak in advance
of Trump’s address.
“Tomorrow,
the president will say — predictably — that the state of our union is strong,”
Schumer said. “But the truth is, the state of the Trump economy is failing
America’s middle class, the state of the Trump health-care system is failing
American families, and the state of the Trump administration is embroiled in
chaos and incompetence. The state of the president’s foreign policy is
incoherent, inconsistent, cynical in the extreme, and has undermined American
power and our national interest. So in sum, the state of our union is in need
of drastic repair.”
Republicans
picked up two Senate seats in the midterm elections and now have a 53-to-47
advantage over the Democratic caucus.
10:10 a.m.: Sen. Christopher A. Coons invites Joshua Trump
to his office
Sen.
Christopher A. Coons (D-Del.) extended an invitation via Twitter to Joshua
Trump, who is attending the State of the Union at the invitation of first lady
Melania Trump, to visit his office while at the Capitol.
Joshua
Trump is a sixth-grade student from Wilmington, Del., who says he’s been bullied
because of his last name. The 11-year-old is not related to the
president.
“I’m
glad @FLOTUS has invited Joshua Trump, a 6th Grader from Wilmington, to the
State of the Union,” Coons wrote. “Joshua has been bullied because of his last
name, which is simply unacceptable. Joshua — I hope you have a great time in
the Capitol — please visit my office if you have a chance!”
10 a.m.: Senate committee considers replacement for
Kavanaugh
As
Trump prepared to visit the House chamber, a Senate committee was set Tuesday
morning to hold a hearing on his pick to replace Supreme Court Justice Brett M.
Kavanaugh on the federal appeals court in Washington.
Trump
has installed a historic number of federal circuit court judges at this point
in his tenure — an achievement likely to be cited during his State of the Union
address.
There
were signs of lingering bitterness Tuesday morning over Kavanaugh’s contentious
confirmation battle even before the hearing for nominee Neomi Rao began. More
than a dozen people, mostly young women, lined up outside the committee room
wearing black T-shirts with the message #RejectRao.
Rao
faces opposition from civil rights groups critical of her record of rolling
back government regulations as the White House regulatory czar. Opponents also
point to provocative columns she wrote as an undergraduate at Yale in the 1990s
on subjects including date rape and affirmative action.
9:30 a.m.: Ocasio-Cortez suggests Trump’s speech isn’t
worth watching
Rep.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who’s become a favorite among liberals since
her debut on Capitol Hill last month, seemed to suggest in a morning tweet that
Trump’s speech isn’t worth watching.
Ocasio-Cortez
posted a CNN news report with this headline: “State of the Union 2019: What to
watch.”
Her
response: “None of it.”
In
an earlier tweet, Ocasio-Cortez told her nearly 2.8 million followers to be
sure to tune in for the Democratic response from Stacey Abrams if they are
skipping the president’s speech.
9:15 a.m.: Sanders won’t say whether Trump will announce
summit date
During
a television interview, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders declined to
say whether Trump would announce a date during his address for a second summit
with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Trump
has hinted that he might.
Last
month, the White House announced tentative plans for a late February summit
with Kim after Trump met in the Oval Office with Kim Yong Chol, a former spy
chief who has been Pyongyang’s lead negotiator.
The
two sides are seeking to jump-start nuclear talks that have bogged down since
their historic first meeting last year in Singapore.
Speculation
for the next meeting site has focused on Danang, Vietnam.
9:10 a.m.: Trump warns of people ‘flooding our Southern
Border’
As
he prepared to deliver his State of the Union address, Trump went on Twitter
for the first time Tuesday to warn of migrants making their way to the U.S.
border.
“Tremendous
numbers of people are coming up through Mexico in the hopes of flooding our
Southern Border,” Trump wrote. “We have sent additional military. We will build
a Human Wall if necessary. If we had a real Wall, this would be a nonevent!”
Trump
is expected to use his address to make his case for $5.7 billion in border wall
funding that led to a protracted partial government shutdown.
8:45 a.m.: Sarah Sanders: Trump can work with Democrats on
infrastructure
White
House press secretary Sarah Sanders cited infrastructure as an issue on which
Trump wants to work with Democrats in the wake of his State of the Union
address.
“There
are a number of policies that Democrats and Republicans know need to be
addressed,” Sanders said during an appearance on CNN. “I think infrastructure
is one of the easiest ones for us to look at. Everybody in this country knows
that we have crumbling bridges and roads that need to be fixed. We also need to
have a technology infrastructure that needs to get better. … We’re hopeful that
we can come together and can get something done.”
Trump,
a Republican who campaigned on addressing the nation’s aging infrastructure,
unveiled a long-awaited plan last February that received a cool reception from
members of both parties, who said the president had not presented a viable way
to pay for it.
The
plan focused on $1.5 trillion in new spending on infrastructure over the coming
decade but relied heavily on states, localities and the private sector to cover
the costs of new roads, bridges, waterways and other public works projects.
A
plan released earlier by Senate Democrats would have relied far more heavily on
direct federal government spending than Trump’s plan, which included $200
billion in federal spending with the aim of enticing several times that amount
from other levels of government.
During
a letter to Democratic colleagues on Monday night, Pelosi also cited
infrastructure as a possible issue on which her party could work with Trump.
“Tomorrow,
we look forward to welcoming President Trump as a guest in our House Chamber
and hearing his report on the State of the Union,” she wrote. “I am hopeful
that tomorrow, we will hear a commitment from the President on issues that have
bipartisan support in the Congress and the Country, such as lowering the price
of prescription drugs and rebuilding America’s infrastructure.”
8:10 a.m.: Eric Trump mocks Pelosi for advocating drones
at border
As
Trump prepared to call for more bipartisanship, his son, Eric Trump, mocked
Pelosi during a television interview for advocating for drones and other
technological improvements at the border.
“I’m
a common-sense guy, right?” Eric Trump said during an appearance on Fox News’s
“Fox & Friends. “And then you hear Nancy Pelosi saying, ‘Let’s get drones.
We’ll fly beautiful drones … sucking jet fuel all day long.’ How does that stop
this problem? It’s actually insanity, guys. My father’s a common-sense guy. You
know what works? Walls work.”
Pelosi
has resisted the president’s demand for $5.7 billion in funding for a border
wall, calling the proposed project “immoral.”
7:50 a.m.: Kellyanne Conway says Trump has no need to
ad-lib
Asked
during a television interview Tuesday whether Trump plans to ad-lib any of his
speech, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway played down the prospect.
“The
address itself has a heavy hand from the president in it,” Conway said during
an appearance on Fox News’s “Fox & Friends,” adding that Trump has no
reason to ad-lib.
Conway
said Trump might pause while reading from his prepared text to emphasize
certain points.
She
also emphasized that Trump will call for unity in the speech and said it will
be interesting to see how Democrats, including Pelosi, react.
“Anybody
who’s sitting there with their arms folded, harrumphing, looking like they’ve
sucked on 12 lemons — that’s on them not him, because he’s calling on unity,
he’s calling for working together,” Conway said. “They’re going to need to
decide if they’re serious about that as well.”
7:40 a.m.: Trump promotes Web page devoted to speech
In
advance of Tuesday night’s speech, Trump has changed his Twitter header
to promote the nationally televised address and a White House Web page devoted
to it.
The
page includes a video with highlights on his State of the Union address,
delivered last year. This will be Trump’s third address to a joint session to
Congress, but the first, delivered shortly after he took office, was not
considered a State of the Union address, in keeping with tradition.
The
White House has said the theme of this year’s speech is “choosing greatness.”
7:30 a.m.: Trump, Democrats make political points with
guests
Both
Trump and congressional Democrats are seeking to make political points with
their guests Tuesday night.
The
lineup of 2019 attendees invited by Democrats includes transgender soldiers
threatened by the administration’s military ban and undocumented workers who
once punched the clock at Trump’s own properties.
The
activist who confronted a Republican senator in an elevator during the debate
over Brett M. Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court will attend as a
guest of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).
Ana
Maria Archila made headlines in September after she and another woman blocked
the doors of a Capitol Hill elevator to speak with then-Sen. Jeff Flake
(R-Ariz.) about his support for Kavanaugh, who faced several allegations of
sexual misconduct. Kavanaugh denied the claims and was confirmed to the high
court in early October.
Read
more about Archila’s invitation here from
The Post’s Elise Viebeck.
Meanwhile,
an 11-year-old boy who says he’s been bullied because of his last name — Trump
— will be one of President Trump’s and first lady Melania Trump’s guests.
Joshua
Trump, a sixth-grade student from Wilmington, Del., who is not related to the
president, drew headlines last year after his parents went public to share
stories of the abuse they said he had suffered because of his last name.
Read
more about his invitation here from
The Post’s Eli Rosenberg.
And
for a look back at when guests lists weren’t this political, read this dispatch from
The Post’s Kylie Swenson.
7:20 a.m.: White House officials say Trump won’t use the
speech as a cudgel
White
House officials insisted on Monday that Trump will not use the speech as a
cudgel to pummel Democrats over his proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall and play
solely to his conservative base.
“This
president is going to call for an end to the politics of resistance,
retribution and call for more comity,” White House senior adviser Kellyanne
Conway told reporters Monday. “He’s calling for cooperation . . . and also
compromise. And he’s going to point out a couple of examples in which this has
happened on his watch.”
Conway
was not specific, but she pointed to what the White House views as Trump’s
accomplishments, including deregulation, the Republican tax-cut bill and a
strong economy.
Read
more here from
The Post’s David Nakamura on what to expect.
7:20 a.m.: Trump has no announced travel plans after
speech
Past
presidents have often hit the road to tout initiatives highlighted during their
speeches.
The
White House has not announced any travel plans for Trump this week.
That
might be due in part to a looming Feb. 15 deadline for congressional
negotiators to reach a compromise on a funding bill — that Trump is willing to
sign — to avert another government shutdown.
Still
at issue is Trump’s demand for $5.7 billion in funding for his long-promised
border wall that resulted in the last shutdown.
7:10 a.m.: Some presidents have had more to say than
others
Some
presidents have had more to say than others during their State of the Union
addresses.
Trump’s
address last year — which clocked in at 5,839 words — was in the middle of the
pack compared to those from recent decades, according to figures kept by the American
Presidency Project.
Democrats
Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were both more verbose than Trump, while Democrat
Jimmy Carter and Republican George H.W. Bush delivered more concise addresses
on average.
Here’s
a list of the average word count for recent presidents:
Donald
Trump: 5,839
Barack
Obama: 6,824
George
W. Bush: 5,184
Bill
Clinton: 7,426
George
H.W. Bush: 4,204
Ronald
Reagan: 4,596
Jimmy
Carter: 3,750
Gerald
Ford: 4,600
7 a.m.: Trump to tout plans to end the transmission of HIV
by 2030
In
his second State of the Union address, Trump plans to announce a national
commitment to ending the transmission of HIV in the United States by 2030.
The
initiative is being pitched by a former real estate mogul who used to brag
about forcing women to take HIV tests.
Read
more about Trump’s history and his plans here from
The Post’s Isaac Stanley-Becker.
Mike DeBonis and Ann E. Marimow contributed to this story.
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