House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday that she will refuse to allow President Trump to deliver his State of the Union address at the Capitol next week, sending the White House scrambling for other options — and dragging the shutdown showdown to “petty” new depths.
Mr. Trump seemed to accept her decision, telling reporters he will come up with an alternative for the Jan. 29 speech but saying Mrs. Pelosi’s move was a “great blotch on the incredible country that we all love.”
He said it was the first time in history a president has been thwarted from delivering the annual speech in the House, and other Republicans called the new speaker’s move “petty” or “shameful.”
Mrs. Pelosi revealed her decision in a letter to Mr. Trump, saying she would refuse to allow the House to approve a measure, usually adopted unanimously, to open the chamber for the address.
“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,” she wrote.
Mr. Trump said she was running scared.
“The State of the Union speech has been canceled by Nancy Pelosi because she doesn’t want to hear the truth. She doesn’t want the American public to hear what’s going on,” he told reporters at the White House.
The cancellation marks the lowest point yet in the relationship between the most powerful Republican and Democrat in Washington.
Mrs. Pelosi was irked several weeks ago when she was summoned to the White House for shutdown negotiations, only to have the president walk out when she refused to agree to approve any money for a border wall. She said Mr. Trump had set her up.
Last week, she sent a letter to Mr. Trump suggesting that the State of the Union be postponed. She noted that the Homeland Security Department, which oversees the Secret Service, had lost funding during the shutdown and said she was worried that the speech would be a security threat.
But Congress, which usually hosts the speech, is fully funded, and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said the Secret Service was prepared.
Mrs. Pelosi then changed her reasoning, saying she didn’t like the appearance of holding the speech as normal, given the record-long shutdown during which 800,000 federal workers are not being paid.
It probably didn’t help when Mr. Trump, responding to her first postponement letter, scuttled her plans last week for an official visit to Belgium and Afghanistan to talk with U.S. troops and American allies.
Democrats said that was an attempt to interfere with Congress’ oversight responsibilities.
Republicans, meanwhile, said the cancellation of the annual speech was an attempt to undermine the Constitution’s command that the president regularly “give to the Congress information of the state of the union.”
George Washington delivered the first such speech in 1790 to the Senate chamber, then meeting in New York.
His successors delivered their reports in writing for more than a century before President Wilson decided in 1913 that an in-person address was better.
Republican-led states have rushed to compete for the honor of hosting Mr. Trump’s speech.
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice said he would make his statehouse available.
“Giving the speech in a state full of people who love their country would truly reflect his focus on the forgotten men and women of America,” he said.
Rep. Andy Biggs, Arizona Republican, said he was preparing an invitation for the president to give the address in his state, with Mr. Trump picking a specific venue, and he was peeved at Mrs. Pelosi.
“This is ridiculous what she’s doing,” he said. “And it’s petty, and it’s childish — it’s immature. And it doesn’t help us resolve the issues at hand.”
Republican officials in North Carolina and Michigan also have invited the president to give the speech in their states.
Until Wednesday afternoon, the president had been making plans to deliver his speech as usual, including a request for time for a walk-through.
He sent a letter to Mrs. Pelosi on Wednesday saying he planned to go ahead with the speech. He pointed out that the speaker had invited him even after the government shutdown began.
“It would be so very sad for our country if the State of the Union were not delivered on time, on schedule, and very importantly, on location!” he said.
Several hours later, Mrs. Pelosi said it was a no-go.
She said that when she sent her invitation in a Jan. 3 letter — her first day as speaker and two weeks into the shutdown — “there was no thought that the government would still be shut down” nearly a month later.
Democrats blame Mr. Trump’s demands for border wall money for sending the government into a shutdown. The president at times has said he deserved responsibility — or credit — for the 33-day-old shutdown.
Republicans say that whatever the cause, Mr. Trump has tried to negotiate but Mrs. Pelosi has refused to talk. The president said she has been captured by her party’s left wing.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, California Republican, began a Twitter campaign Wednesday to try to pressure Mrs. Pelosi. He asked people to retweet his post if they agreed that the president should be allowed to speak from the Capitol.
Other Republicans said Democrats should join them, override Mrs. Pelosi and vote to invite the president.
A Fox News poll released Wednesday night found that a majority of voters — 56 percent — think the president should deliver the speech “as usual.” A third said he should skip it.
Overall, though, they blame the president more than Democrats for orchestrating the shutdown, 51 percent to 34 percent. Another 3 percent blamed congressional Republicans, and 9 percent said they were all to blame.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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