OPINION:
ANALYSIS/OPINION:
“In the spirit of our Constitution, I invite you to deliver your State of the Union address before a Joint Session of Congress on Tuesday, January 29, 2019, in the House Chamber. I look forward to welcoming you to the Congress.”
— Nancy Pelosi, in a letter to President Trump just hours after she was sworn in as House speaker
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is wedged between a rock and a hard place. Will she gavel in Donald Trump for his State of the Union speech on Jan. 29 or will she refuse to perch behind the man in the “people’s house”? The optics of a Trump SOTU and a seated Speaker Pelosi would be a first for her — and perhaps one she could not stomach.
The trial balloons for Mr. Trump’s address are flying in from every direction. Mrs. Pelosi has suggested Mr. Trump simply deliver written text to Congress and delay his address until after the federal government shutdown is over. Some Republicans have suggested he speak directly to Americans from the Oval Office.
No and no. The president of the United States should stand before a joint session of Congress, face the cameras and tell all who see and hear what the state of this divided nation really is. He should separate fact from fiction, reality from perception.
In other words, the president should get down to the real nitty-gritty.
There’s no better opportunity to do so than the SOTU. The president could zero in, for example, on America’s human capital, the very people he spoke of more than two years ago in his post-election speech in 2016.
“We are going to fix our inner cities and rebuild our highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, schools, hospitals. We’re going to rebuild our infrastructure, which will become, by the way, second to none. And we will put millions of our people to work as we rebuild it,” Mr. Trump said.
Well, Americans deserve an update on where that promise stands in Mrs. Pelosi’s and Sen. Kamala D. Harris’ voter- and immigrant-rich California. In New York, Texas and Florida.
As for the so-nicknamed DMV, D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, both Democrats, can be as politically onerous as the long lines and bureaucratic nonsense at departments of motor vehicles. In fact, the two politicians plan a news conference on Tuesday to again urge Mr. Trump to end the shutdown — as if he hasn’t heard the calls already.
Some many Democrats are so intent on opposing Mr. Trump, they’ve forgotten what Donald Trump said on election night, what he promised to do and where he stands on those promises. He promised money people in the DMV would be employed making America great again. Are they?
Are they working and prepared to work on building Interstate 81? Will they be ready to help on the infrastructure of Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport?
How about Metro? New schools for Virginia and Maryland families? Are the DMV’s Democrats even conversing with unions about those jobs and future plans?
And what’s going on with veteran hospitals and medical centers? Is the DMV prepared or preparing for better veterans’ facilities?
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam and Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner should be urged to speak up and out, and inform the public about the status of those facilities and the ones overseas. When they search for a camera after Mr. Trump has been standing before them, their comments are as reactionary as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s are off America’s traditional beaten path.
Mrs. Pelosi’s Democrat-led House — again, the people’s house — is not the media. She cannot mute the president as if he’s part of #MuteRKelly movement.
During his State of the Union address, Mr. Trump should, for the most part, brush aside the Chuck and Nancy show, and the Democratic and social media foreplay. Hard-working American families, including those caught in the political web of the government shutdown, are playing hardball. It’ll be to his advantage to imagine himself being sworn in to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Indeed, President Trump has much to say, and he shouldn’t say it in a singular Oval Office address. He must stand before cameras and tell the public whether his actions have matched the words he spoke after voters elected him.
• Deborah Simmons can be contacted at dsimmons@washingtontimes.com.
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