Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley have made the bold decision to boycott this year’s State of the Union, joining 8 other congress members who have skipped Trump’s previous addresses. I just wanted to lift these ten leaders up for their principled and brave decision, and encourage other members attending to resist the herd mentality of clapping at every other thing Trump says, as though legally bound to do so.
The need for politeness, decorum, and “comity” has been over for some time now. Let’s hope more get on board with boycotting Trump’s various functions and generally refusing to normalize the guy at key moments, like the night before his unjust acquittal. From The Hill:
Most of the 10 Democrats — Reps. Al Green (Texas), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), Maxine Waters (Calif.), Bennie Thompson (Miss.), Bobby Rush (Ill.), Steve Cohen (Tenn.), Earl Blumenauer (Ore.), Hank Johnson (Ga.) and Frederica Wilson (Fla.) — have also opted against attending Trump's past annual addresses to Congress in recent years as an expression of protest against his presidency.
Salute!
Wednesday, Feb 5, 2020 · 3:27:15 AM +00:00 · emerly
Pelosi said to have torn up Trump’s speech in his presence right after he finished. So at least that’s something (though not nearly as much as disinviting, tbh). Also, Bernie, Warren and Klobuchar skipped it to campaign, but that is not exactly the same as a boycott, so I chose to leave that part out of the story. Still, Bernie plans to give a response speech which I will post a link to shortly. Update: here is the video. Best response by any Dem so far, imo. Speech starts at about the 34 minute mark.