Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi “suggested” to President Trump Wednesday that America’s 29th annual State of the Union Address either be canceled, postponed or replaced by submission of written remarks until after Washington has resolved the current government funding/border security funding dispute.
Congressman Mo Brooks, R-Huntsville, responded to Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s political stunt and use of the President’s State of the Union Address as both a political bargaining chip and to muffle the President during the southern border crisis and the government shutdown.
“House Speaker Pelosi’s letter is a childish, partisan, political stunt that undermines bipartisanship at a time America needs it the most,” Brooks said in a statement. “It is the height of hutzpah for Speaker Pelosi to feign concern for the President’s personal security during the State of the Union Address while callously showing no concern for the thousands of Americans who die each year because of illegal aliens and America’s porous southern border. Speaker Pelosi’s conduct is nothing more than a radical, hyper-partisan and shameless attempt to appease the Democrat Party’s Socialist base and childishly embarrass the President of the United States.”
“However unpleasant it may have been for conservative Republicans to listen to President Obama’s radical Socialist ideology, not once in six years did Republican leadership consider canceling President Obama’s State of the Union Address,” Congressman Brooks continued. “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her radical Socialist base should show the same courtesy and maturity by treating President Trump the same way. It is one thing for Democrats and Republicans to vigorously disagree and advance conflicting beliefs. It is quite another to engage in hyper-partisan political stunts that may be the first in American history. Speaker Pelosi’s hyper-partisan political stunt confirms that Democrats who claimed bipartisanship during elections were simply mouthing the words in order to deceive the voting public and win election. In a word, Speaker Pelosi’s letter is ‘shameless.’”
“In a blow to Speaker Pelosi, a senior Department of Homeland Security official refuted Pelosi’s deceptive claim that security concerns justify her request to postpone or cancel the State of the Union Address,” Brooks said. “Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats not only never contacted Homeland Security or the Secret Service about this security red herring issue, both security agencies confirm they have been preparing for months and are ‘ready’ to secure the event.”
President Donald J. Trump (R) wants $5.7 billion to build a wall on the southern border with Mexico. Democrats are refusing to include funding for the border wall, even though that is a relatively small amount of money compared to the federal budget of $4,184.9 billion. On Tuesday, Democrats refused the President’s request to meet with him at lunch to discuss ending the shutdown and funding border security.
Mo Brooks represents the Fifth Congressional District. He is serving his fifth term in the Congress.
