We previously discussed the controversy over the State of the Union. I view both sides as irresponsible in this dispute. I previously objected to Speaker Nancy Pelosi using a clearly manufactured excuse of security. After Trump confirmed that security was not an issue, Pelosi simply dropped the pretense and disinvited the President. The media was virtually silent about the earlier misrepresentation and misuse of the security rationale. Trump then dropped plans to give the speech and seemed to morph into Jack Nicholson and saying that “Nancy” cannot handle the truth. The problem is that that line was given by a trapped, unhinged perjurer in A Few Good Men. We are left not only without a SOTU but no leader in sight on this issue. Frankly, most of us cannot handle the truth about both parties and their apparent priorities.
Pelosi sent her original letter on January 16 raising security reasons as the only barrier to the SOTU. Once the security rationale was eliminated, she then refused to invite the president due to the shutdown.
Trump responded by saying Pelosi had cancelled the speech “because she doesn’t want to hear the truth . . . She’s afraid of the truth . . . She doesn’t want the American public to see what’s going on.”
Trump later said that he would wait to give the speech on the House floor. It was a smart move. A speech anywhere else would have made Trump look less presidential.
None of this does a thing to end this ridiculous and harmful shutdown. We have now expended more money than what was demanded for the wall. That is the illogical state in which we live as citizens with leaders who act solely for their insular political interests.