President Donald Trump delivered the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYU5VE2c6Ps&w=560&h=315]
The Democratic Party response was given by Stacey Abrams:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7hykPoc2iA&w=560&h=315]
The Guest of the President highlighted in his speech from Fortune:
Joshua Trump: This sixth-grader from Wilmington, Delaware, says he has been bullied at school due to his last name. First Lady Melania Trump launched her “Be Best” campaign in 2018, which in part aims to prevent bullying.
Debra Bissell, Heather Armstrong, and Madison Armstrong: These three women are the daughter, granddaughter, and great-granddaughter of Gerald and Sharon David—an elderly couple of Reno, Nevada, who were allegedly killed by an undocumented immigrant last month.
Elvin Hernandez:Hernandez is a special agent with the Trafficking in Persons Unit within the Department of Homeland Security. He investigates organized crime groups involved in international human trafficking. Trump recently argued that building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border would help fight trafficking.
Timothy Matson: Matson, a SWAT member of the Pittsburgh Police Department, was wounded when responding to the mass shooting that left 11 dead at the Tree of Life Synagogue in October 2018. Trump visited Pittsburgh shortly after the shooting, despite Jewish leaders in the community saying he was not welcome unless he stops targeting minorities.
Judah Samet: Samet is a Holocaust survivor and a member of the Tree of Life Synagogue present during the attack. He immigrated to Israel after the war, and then came to the United States in the 1960s.
Ashley Evans: Evans is just over a year sober after suffering a relapse of opioid and substance abuse during her pregnancy in 2017—the same year Trump declared the opioid epidemic a national emergency. On February 15, Evans will be reunited with her daughter full-time.
Roy James: James is the manager at Vicksburg Forest Products, a sawmill in Mississippi, where he has worked for 26 years. The mill planned to close its doors, but reopened after receiving preferential tax treatment through provisions in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The act, passed by Trump in 2017, reportedly created vastly fewer jobs than promised while reducing the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%.
Matthew Charles: The White House says Charles was the first prisoner released under Trump’s First Step Act, legislation that moved to reform the criminal justice system and lessen overly-punitive federal prison sentences. Charles was sentenced to 35 years in prison in 1996 for selling crack cocaine and other related offenses. While incarcerated, Charles began studying religion, became a law clerk, taught GED classes, and mentored fellow inmates. He was released on January 3.
Alice Johnson: Trump granted Johnson clemency in June 2018. The 63-year-old grandmother had been 22 years into a life sentence without parole for a first-time drug offense. Reality television personality Kim Kardashian pushed for her release.
Tom Wibberley: Wibberley is the father of Navy Seaman Craig Wibberley, who was killed on the USS Cole during a 2000 terrorist attack when he was 19 years old. Suicide bombers killed 17 U.S. sailors in October 2000 while the USS Cole was refueling at a Yemen port.
Grace Eline: Eline was diagnosed with Germinoma, a germ-cell brain tumor, at the age of nine. She began cancer treatment in May of last year, and is now cancer-free. A White House statement recognizes her “kind heart and infectious smile.”
So…what say you?
Trump’s speech, as all SOTUs are, was excruciatingly long (I watched very little, mostly followed on Twitter). His callouts to the gallery were better, more in his element.
Abrams response was fine and a big improvement over the Pelosi-Schumer American Gothic response of last month. It was kind of weird to watch because it was such a normal political speech. I’d forgotten what that was like.Report
Somewhat mirrors my own experience. Trumps delivery was characteristic and packed solid with standard Trumpian flat out falsehoods and false promises.
Abrams response was pretty decent. I’m a big fan of this focus on voter rights and access, I think it’s a good strategy for the party and on rock solid good principles. The only thing the right has to counter it with are allegations of voter fraud that they have so far been patently unable to substantiate to anyone outside of the Fox bubble.Report
Good grief that’s like 80 minutes long! If Trump had the oratorial chops of a middle-aged Fidel Castro I might be able to sit through that. But he really doesn’t. Like, I can generally get at most 5 minutes into hearing him speak before he goes all Peanuts-grownup, “wah wah wah wah”.Report
The pacing. Aaaaaugh! Pacing! Whoever directed this needs to be fired.
It’s like a community theatre production of a well written farce but none of the jokes are funny because every line is delivered at half the speed it should be and every queue is late.Report
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No word that I have seen on Abrams speech.
One side note, I do find it interesting that younger Dems all wore white during Black History month.Report
A joke I just saw on the twitters (paraphrasing):
“They need to send Hillary down to the border. Nobody seems to be able to get over her.”Report
Question for those of you what watched it live:
Was RBG there?Report
If she showed up for a Republican SotU it would just prove that they had finished the RobotRBG.Report
I was asking more of “dude, are we going to have a SCotUS fight NEXT FREAKING WEEK!” question than anything else.
If she showed up, that’d mean something.
If she had better reasons to show up, climbing a mountain maybe!, that’d mean something else. Maybe even something else entirely.Report
Seriously… she doesn’t go to Republican SotU. Its her thing.
But yes, we might have a SCOTUS fight next week; or the RobotRBG will finally take and we’ll marvel at her longevity. I’m guessing she’s watching Opera with Nino by the end of the year. Gird your loins accordingly.Report