Trump Concedes to Pelosi - No State of the Union Until Shutdown Ends
The partial government shutdown has shut down an annual tradition.
In a Twitter post Wednesday, President Donald Trump announced he will not give a State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress as scheduled next week, or anywhere else, after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stated Trump will not be welcome on Capitol Hill.
And in the Cabinet room of the White House, according to CNN, Trump made it clear who was to blame and why:
“The State of the Union speech has been canceled by Nancy Pelosi because she doesn’t want to hear the truth,” Trump said.
“She doesn’t want the American public to hear what’s going on, and she’s afraid of the truth.”
The cancellation had been a possibility since Pelosi wrote to the White House last week claiming that the shutdown had made security such an issue that the speech should be postponed until the government was fully open again.
That excuse was dismissed by the Secret Service as well as the Department of Homeland Security, but Pelosi, as the speaker of the House, still has the power to keep Trump from speaking to Congress.
In a letter to the White House on Wednesday, Pelosi made that decision official.
“I am writing to inform you that the House of Representatives will not consider a concurrent resolution authorizing the President’s State of the Union address in the House Chamber until government has opened,” the letter said.
This afternoon, I sent @realDonaldTrump a letter informing him that the House will not consider a concurrent resolution authorizing the President’s State of the Union address in the House Chamber until government has opened. https://t.co/r1oad0xEAh pic.twitter.com/kGEbayx95u
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) January 23, 2019
There had been speculation that Trump could deliver a State of the Union message in another venue – the Senate chambers, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell retains Republican control, for instance, or even another site outside Washington.
But Trump’s announcement acknowledged that no alternative site would be equivalent.
There is “no venue that can compete with the history, tradition and importance of the House Chamber,” Trump wrote.
As the Shutdown was going on, Nancy Pelosi asked me to give the State of the Union Address. I agreed. She then changed her mind because of the Shutdown, suggesting a later date. This is her prerogative – I will do the Address when the Shutdown is over. I am not looking for an….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 24, 2019
….alternative venue for the SOTU Address because there is no venue that can compete with the history, tradition and importance of the House Chamber. I look forward to giving a “great” State of the Union Address in the near future!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 24, 2019
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a one-time Trump critic who has become one of his most prominent allies since the Senate confirmation battle over now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, attacked Pelosi’s obstructionist stance.
In a Twitter post, he called it a “new low for American politics.”
Speaker Pelosi’s decision not to invite President @realDonaldTrump to deliver the State of the Union address sets a new low for American politics. https://t.co/rkUkTHkxny
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) January 23, 2019
In a follow-post, he wrote that the State of the Union address should transcend partisan differences.
“The president – regardless of party – should have the opportunity to address the American people from the traditional venue of the U.S. House of Representatives,” Graham wrote.
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