Claiming security concerns, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has asked President Donald Trump to postpone his Jan. 29 State of the Union speech due to the shutdown of the government. There is no question that security can be guaranteed, as reaffirmed by Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen who said that federal law enforcement is “fully prepared to support and secure the State of the Union.” The general view however is that the security risk is a thin, if not transparent, cover for a political muscle play. In reality, Congress controls the invitation and a joint meeting of Congress requires an invitation from both houses.
In her letter, Pelosi wrote “Sadly, given the security concerns and unless government re-opens this week, I suggest we work together to determine another suitable date after government has re-opened for this address or for you to consider delivering your State of the Union address in writing to the Congress on January 29.”
There is in fact no requirement that the SOTU be given in person, let alone in Congress. Indeed, this communication was not even called the State of the Union until the 1930s. Article II, Section 3 states:
“He shall from time to time give to Congress information of the State of the Union and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.”
The January SOTU address has been a tradition not a textual requirement of Article I or Article II. George Washington however gave the first SOTU on January 8, 1790. Thomas Jefferson did not like the practice.
Trump could give the SOTU in writing in or in another location. However, the threat to close the doors of the House floor to the President creates a disturbing precedent, particularly because it does not appear that there is a security barrier to holding the SOTU. This seems more like a bargaining chip than a security imperative.
What do you think?
Trump should give the address from a podium in front of the capital building. Or on the mall ans turn it onto a large political rally. Democrats don’t want to five the president a forum to talk about the things he has accomplished. Pelosi’s move reeks of partsian politics and will backfire.
Put The Wall around the Beltway. No gates!
The State of the Union could moved to another venue with some added entertainment
Here’s Vladimir Putin singing “Blueberry Hill”
Em, peach mint! My favorite flavor!
Just saw a pix of Deb Haaland in TNYT today; striking!
Turley also wrote, “This seems more like a bargaining chip than a security imperative.”
Do you think? Is there anything in the Constitution that says the government has to stay open and fund its operations? Is there anything in the Constitution that says that The Senate Majority Leader is forbidden to schedule a vote to override The President’s veto? Is there anything in the Constitution that says that The Senate Majority is forbidden from replacing its Majority Leader for refusing to schedule a vote to override the President’s veto? Is there anything in The Bill of Rights guaranteeing The Instinct for Self-Preservation?
Wait. I forgot the first question. Oh! Lookie, lookie! There it is.
DO YOU THINK???
Dear Ms. Late4Yoga, Your beloved Madam Speaker of The House really stepped in it this time and your flailing comments in response to Jon Turley’s post demonstrate your frustration with losing cause being further weakened with Pelosi’s latest self-sabotaging move. Grandma Nancy left grand kid Dems with little to work with today as illustrated by your flailing commentary.
Remind me again, Beaky G. Why didn’t Trump get funding approved for his boondoggle wall when Republicans had control of both Houses of Congress?
Was Trump too busy campaigning for Republican Senators that he forgot all about Republican Representatives?
Becka Gee can’t save you from the rabbit hole you have run down today.
Check the spelling. Beaky G is short for Beak Guitar. That’s “code” for Bill [beak] Martin [guitar]. (Also see: Tab Lockheed and Check Oilco.)
Thank you for explaining the many pet names you have for me, but you forgot Caveman. No matter, keep trying to play that horrible hand dealt to you by Ms. Pelosi – we are enjoying the show.
Can you say “I’m thinking about declaring a national emergency, but I haven’t made up my mind yet?” Trump can!
How ’bout this one, “I’m thinking about raising the stakes on this hand, but I haven’t made up my mind yet?” Trump can say that one, too!
Maybe Trump will Tweet something like, “I’m thinking about giving The State of the Union, but I haven’t made up my mind yet.”
The Dims have really screwed themselves with the massive chaos that they have created with their political theater. US Congress is as chaotic as the UK Parliament
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7kKRKHJ5k8o
Keep the Federal Govt closed and strip all of the MC of their salaries. The liberals in Hollywood can bankroll them
Avoidance masquerading as confrontation. How Trumpian of you.
Why didn’t the Republicans give Trump funding for his boondoggle wall when they had both Houses of Congress?
Why? Because the Republicans needed 60 votes to pass it, which meant they needed 8 Democrat votes, that they were never going to get.
And McConnell wasn’t going to foolishly ‘nuke’ the filibuster over it and ram it through without at least some bipartisan support — unlike Obama, Pelosi and the Democrats who went ahead and rammed thru Obamacare without one single Republican vote.
FINALLY YOU MAKE A REALLY GOOD POINT! YES I HAVE THE SAME QUESTION.
Tbob, and the Republicans are stupid for not doing it. This was and is a serious matter and worth going it alone. now it’s too late. As she said, I wonder why. are they stupid or are they saboteurs too? I question the Republican leadership and most of my life as a Republican i have rarely been impressed.
it took a guy with a more NYC style Democrat personality like Trump to get some stuff done. It’s also why they hate him, because they wish he was on their team like he used to be.
Madam Speaker of the House accuses President of temper tantrum for trying to enhance physical barriers along crime/drug sieve of a Southern border and then proceeds to lie about security concerns in an attempt to obstruct President’s annual SOTU. Dems don’t realize they are playing checkers while Trump is playing chess. Dems pretend to be concerned about 800k federal workers who will ultimately be made whole with back-pay while Trump fighting to enhance border security for 250 million or so. Dems party in Puerto Rico while Trump stays mostly holed up in DC since late December. Partial government shutdown will likely be resolved before this year’s Super Bowl and then Trump will run all the way to Election Day 2020 with bad tape put out by Dems during this period: anti-border security (letting illegal aliens/drugs kill our citizens); “let them eat cake” (partying in Puerto Rico); lying attempts at obstructing SOTU; etc.
Turley wrote, “What do you think?”
Gramma Nancy is the best ever. Her mallet is not made of Nerf. Trump should hunker down in his Whack-A-Mole hole Tweeting the SOTU 140 characters at a time. Ha-Ha!
Remember: Turley asked for it. Literally and figuratively.
🙂
You may want to lay off of this one, L4D. You are sounding increasingly desperate.
“Socialist” Carter in Virgina: TNYT today.
LATEST PEW RESEARCH:
MOST AMERICANS OPPOSE BORDER WALL
AND MOST OPPOSE ANY COMPROMISE TO BUILD IT
A poll from Pew Research Center released Wednesday shows that opposition to the wall continues to be robust. Forty percent of respondents favor an expansion of the wall, Pew found, with a 58 percent majority opposing it.
But Pew went a step further, revealing particularly bad news for Trump and the Republicans. Pew then asked respondents whether they would be willing to see the shutdown end by compromising their position. That is, if you oppose the wall, would you support ending the shutdown by spending money on its construction or, if you support the wall, would you approve of ending the shutdown by giving up on funding it?
About 7 in 10 of those who support the wall said they would oppose any compromise. But nearly 9 in 10 of those who oppose the wall said they, too, wanted to stick to their guns — meaning that, overall, more than half the country both opposes the wall and opposes compromising on that position.
Opposition to Trump’s position is so robust that the number of people who oppose the wall but think a compromise is acceptable is lower than the portion of Trump’s supporters who would accept a deal that didn’t include wall funding.
Yet Trump seemingly remains obstinate. Pew’s research offers one explanation: Conservative Republicans, more than any other group, see the shutdown as not being that significant a problem. About 4 in 10 say the shutdown is not too big a problem or not a problem at all. Overall, 20 percent of Americans hold those positions — while more than half say it’s a serious problem.
Edited from: “Analysis: Most Americans Oppose The Wall And Oppose Ending The Shutdown By Funding It”
THE WASHINGTON POST, 1/16/19
RE. ABOVE:
It looks like Trump hasn’t a winning hand. Even polls friendliest to Trump are not encouraging. What’s more in Texas, a politically red state, support for the wall is not exactly strong. Eminent Domain issues could drag on in the courts past 2020.
So one has to ask: “How can Trump deliver a State of The Union Address amid an unpopular government shutdown?” Surely he has no positive vision to offer as long as the shutdown persists.
Trump can’t acknowledge the shutdown then move on to say how ‘great things are’. Nor can Trump really announce policy initiatives for ‘when the government is back’.
It’s not like Trump can say, “Once this shutdown ends, we’re going to push for blah, blah blah”. Nor can he say, “As soon as the Democrats fund my wall, I’m going to call for blah, blah, blah”.
Any way you cut it, Trump’s address will have to be centered on the shutdown with solutions offered. There has to be a tone like he truly wants to end the shutdown.
But if Trump shows up only to repeat demands, this address goes nowhere. The shutdown is the ‘elephant in the room’ that dwarfs everything else.
“It ain’t over until the fat lady sings.”
Jamie Dimon said the government shutdown could result in zero economic growth. Some other fellow whose name I forget went Dimon one better and predicted negative economic growth. They could be wrong. Or not.
Locally, the inability of the Export-Import Bank to arrange substantial financing is hurting.
And, of course, the local grain growers will soon need loans for the spring plantings. I gather USDA does that, when it isn’t laid off…
Almost everything right now is contingent on ‘when’ the shutdown ends.
i am really pleased with the shutdown it shows a good willingness to up the ante.
I say at this point prepare for a constitutional crisis and possible extreme chaos. Might as well take it all the way to the mat. Let the natives stand their ground for the first time in American history and not just chicken out in the face of the teeming masses or whatever you call them.
ha, this is false. on this issue people lie to pollsters.
people know the right answer the pollsters want and they just lie.
just like in the old USSR people would always lie in public for fear of being smeared and losing jobs etc. by some political commissar watching them for a wrong opinion
trust me the average person gets it and fully supports stronger border security and enforcement.
the wall is a part of that bigger picture.
Why wasn’t Nancy concerned about her security in Hawaii & PR??
Maybe she had security in Hawaii and Puerto Rico.
Maybe Trump should give The SOTU in Puerto Rico
With her net worth at $150 Million, she, like Hillary, isnt concerned about us little people.
Yet tRump is the man of the people NOT.
Trump is not the usual individual we meet on the street. However, a lot of those individuals we meet here and on the street are fascists and might not even know it. You YNOT might be one of them so perhaps you should look up what a fascist is and then see if you fit in that category. Since you never say anything of value no one knows one way or the other. But they do know that based on your comments your knowledge of the affairs being discussed is likely very low.
It’s time to play Jeopardy “The Political Edition” January 29, 2019
The House of Representatives is without Honor and a failure of an institution.
Of course it never seems to occur to them that the American Public might want to listen to the state of the union speech and make their own conclusions. This is just the same type of deplatforming we see levied against individuals on the internet by big tech, the legacy news media, sjws, politicians generally, and payment processors.
Washington state saw the same analog committed by the legislature just after the State Supreme Court held the state in contempt of court for failing to fulfill their constitutional and mandates by the court to fully fund primary education. (levying a fine around a hundred grand a day) The legislature refused to allow Supreme Court Chief Justice Barbara Madsen to give the State of the Judiciary address before the legislature, the claim was that the legislature was too busy. Given the rebuke, in my view the court should have asserted itself and declared the entire state budget unconstitutional and sent those miscreants back into session to fulfill their duty.
But I suppose we shouldn’t expect much from the federal House, giving the president an audience certainly might interfere with the tropical vacation schedule of Congress. Yet, I suppose they could always attempt to absolve themselves by seeing a private showing of Hamilton to pontificate how virtuous they are.
Be interesting to see how it plays out… Steny got out over his skis, using “revoked”to NBC – then his office walked it back. And Hakeem Jeffries got waaay out over his skis. Very petulant and childish. LOL. Not that he holds a patent on idiocy.
I am sure the D are fundraising off their plucky little mother of 5. Etc. Standing up to Big Orange….
Pelosi can’t stop it. Per the Constitution it’s a. required and b for The Congress not just one branch of congress.
True she owns the largest room but it’s not the only one in DC. For that matter it can be submitted in written form or done from the Oval over the networks with no advance copies required to the press or from any other location.
Good time to demonstrate how impotent Pelosi’s position is especially after that slam on the VPs wife.
All the stupid pundits had to do was check the Constitution. The left doesn’t matter as they took the oath of office ‘for purposes of evasion.’
Could hold it in the Lincoln Center?
Trump opening line at The Lincoln Center SOTU:
You can’t impeach someone who’s doing a great job [at shutting down the government]”
Does seem like a STUFU.
More like Pelosi’s SOTU SNAFU.
Pelosi has demonstrated to the country that she’s all about the politics. Sure, that energizes her base, but elections are won by convincing America’s broad middle that you’ve got what they want. Trump continues to deliver, while Pelosi plays games.
I’ll look forward to seeing how Trump wipes the floor with her after this stupid move on her part. SOTU will be a most entertaining evening.
Wally Moran says that Trump shutting down the government for the sake of Trump’s boondoggle wall has nothing to do with politics. [Huh?]
Otherwise the Republicans would have given Trump his boondoggle wall when they had control of both Houses of Congress. [Whaaat?}
Look Jackass (otherwise known as L4D), that’s specifically not what I said. When you develop some reading comprehension skills, get back to me, ok?
Wally M.,
L4B likes to “recycle/ modify” what others say, so she will torture the words until they comply with what she wants the words to say.
Then she can say “what Turley is ‘really saying’, or “what Wally Moran is ‘really saying’ “, etc.
She regularly re-spins the columns and the comments of others.
It’s not really an issue of “reading comprehension”; she’s “merely” dishonest.
Oh, so she’s a democrat then? That explains it…
You will be made aware of your own thoughts if they have to be pried out of you with a forceps.
Trump and McConnell shutting down the government for the sake of getting funding for a boondoggle wall that was one of Trump’s signature campaign promises is necessarily playing politics with the issue of border security. (It still takes two to tango.)
Trump and McConnell failing to deliver on that campaign promise of Trump’s for the past two years during which Republicans controlled both Houses of Congress and The White House necessarily means that both Trump and Congressional Republicans have failed to deliver on Trump’s boondoggle-wall campaign promise. (Elections have consequences.)
P. S. Trump can’t wipe the floor without help from the federal contractors Trump is currently stiffing with Trump’s lockout. (Stupid is as Trump does.)
“You will be made aware of your own thoughts if they have to pried out of you with force”.
As I’ve noted before, L4D may have a sideline writing the messages on the little paper strips found in fortune cookies.
It seens “highly probable” that she either writes those, or that she is plagiarizing what she’s read in those cookie fortune tellers.
Tom Nash, but it will post as anonymous
@ Tom Nash- that was much more pleasant than being called a something-ist as most lefties do. Still nonsensical, but then, it’s what we expect of L4D
Wally Moran says: January 17, 2019 at 12:34 AM
Pelosi has demonstrated to the country that she’s all about the politics. Sure, that energizes her base, but elections are won by convincing America’s broad middle that you’ve got what they want. Trump continues to deliver, while Pelosi plays games.
Trump has not delivered his boondoggle wall. And neither did Congressional Republicans for the past two years. Trump has delivered the longest government shutdown thus far. And so has Mitch McConnell. Trump and McConnell have demonstrated to the country that they are all about the politics that energize Trump’s base. But that has not yet, nor will it ever, convince the broad middle of Americans. Trump continues to play political games with his own MAGA cultists.
Then he’ll do it without her.
Trump will reopen the government without funding for his boondoggle wall. Then he’ll deliver the SOTU before both houses of Congress.
Unless he finally makes up his mind and declares a national emergency because a woman wouldn’t let him speak.
disturbing.
Pelosi’s botox addled brain is rapidly failing her and the nation.