Thursday, Congressman Mo Brooks, R-Huntsville, and House colleagues sent a letter to President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell proposing that the President’s annual State of the Union address be held in the Senate Chamber in after Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-California, uninvited President Donald J. Trump. It is the first time in history that the U.S. House has revoked the President’s invitation to address the American people in his annual State of the Union address in the House chamber.
“Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s unprecedented and hyper-partisan move to revoke President Trump’s invitation to address the American people at the annual State of the Union address is nothing more than a childish, partisan, political stunt that undermines bipartisanship at a time America needs it the most,” Congressman 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.”
“Speaker Pelosi’s attempt to muffle President Trump and appease her radical, socialist, open borders base using the false claim of security concerns is shameful,” Brooks added. “Yesterday, Speaker Pelosi’s ‘questionable security’ claim was blown out of the water by Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who stated yesterday ‘The Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Secret Service are fully prepared to support and secure the State of the Union. We thank the Service for their mission focus and dedication and for all they do each day to secure our homeland.’[2] What’s more, Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats not only never contacted Homeland Security or the Secret Service about this “red herring” security issue, both security agencies confirm they have been preparing for months and are ‘ready’ to secure the event.”
“Perhaps even more absurd is Speaker Pelosi’s claim that President Trump should not address the Congress because of the shutdown even though the State of the Union invitation was issued by Speaker Pelosi to President Trump on January 3rd during the shutdown. Speaker Pelosi’s revocation justification rings hollow and crystallizes the crass political motivations behind this hyper-partisan stunt.”
Brooks continued, “America faces both a crisis at our porous southern border and a federal government partial shutdown that is hurting millions of American citizens. Contrary to Speaker Pelosi’s claims, now is exactly when American people should hear from their President of the United States on these critical issues, and others, in the state of our nation. What is Speaker Pelosi so scared about what President Trump might say? Is Speaker Pelosi fearful of the truth about the dead Americans who lose their lives every day because of Democrat policies that aid and abet illegal alien homicides and overdoses from drugs that leak into America like a sieve across our porous southern border? Does Speaker Pelosi fear that true facts and sound arguments for border security will expose the Democrats’ and national media’s hyper-political rhetoric, outright lies and deceit?”
“I most strongly encourage Vice-President Mike Pence, in his Constitutional capacity as the presiding officer of the Senate, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, to invite President Trump to report to the American people on the state of the union in the Senate Chamber,” Brooks concluded. “While traditionally these addresses have been held in the House Chamber due to its larger size, inasmuch as House Democrats apparently do not want to hear from the President anyway, overcrowding of the Senate chamber should not be an issue. I urge President Trump, Vice-President Pence (as President of the Senate), and Leader McConnell to maintain January 29, 2019 as the date on which President Trump can address the American people from the Senate Chamber, thus putting President Trump with our first president, George Washington, who also gave his first State of the Union address in the Capitol’s Senate Chamber.”
Speaker Pelosi denies cancelling the State of the Union address, but rather simply wanted it postponed. The majority leader of the House of Representatives, Steny Hoyer, D-Marylond, stated on CNN that the “The state of the union is off.”
President Trump retaliated on Thursday, by denying Pelosi and a congressional delegation the use of a military airplane to take a Department of Defense trip to Belgium, Egypt, and Afghanistan. The group boarded a U.S. Air Force bus to travel to the Air Force base for their trip when they were then notified that the President was revoking their use of military aircraft. The President said that they can fly commercial. The military is not affected by the shutdown.
“In light of the 800,000 great American workers not receiving pay, I am sure you would agree that postponing this public relations event is totally appropriate,” President Trump wrote.
The group was to be gone for seven days. Government workers will not get paid for a second pay period if the government shutdown is not resolved before then. Any deal would be impossible with Pelosi out of the country.
The partial government shutdown is now into its 28th day. 420,000 government workers are being required to go to work despite not being paid. 380,000 government workers have been told not to report to work.
Fox News is reporting that food banks are being set up for the families of FBI, Coast Guard and other government agency employees who are not being paid during the shutdown. President Trump is requesting $5.7 billion for increased border security. To this point congressional Democrats have refused to negotiate.
Congressman Mo Brooks represents Alabama’s Fifth Congressional District.
