Pelosi blocks Trump from delivering State of the Union speech
January 24, 2019 09:00
US President Donald Trump and Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi exchanged barbs and letters after she barred him from speaking in the House of Representatives until the partial government shutdown ends.
The traditional State of the Union Address by the president in a joint session of the US Congress is done at the invitation of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, a powerful position that is currently being occupied by Pelosi.
Pelosi on Wednesday told Trump that there would be no State of the Union Address as she had earlier scheduled on January 29 and insisted that the annual address of the president cannot happen till the time the partial government shutdown continues.
The government shutdown now into its 34th day is because of the sharp differences between Trump and the opposition Democrats over constructing a wall along the US-Mexico border to prevent illegal immigrants from entering the country.
Democrats, led by Pelosi, have said they will not let the Congress pass any legislation that has funding provision for the wall. Trump is seeking USD 5.6 billion for the wall.
"I am writing to inform you that the House of Representatives will not consider a concurrent resolution authorising the President's State of the Union Address in the House Chamber until government has opened," Pelosi wrote in a letter to Trump, hours after she received a letter from the president that he has accepted her earlier invitation for State of the Union Address and as such he would be showing up at the US Congress next Tuesday, January 29.
"I look forward to seeing you on the evening of January 29th in the Chamber of House of Representatives. It would be so very sad for our country if the State of the Union were not delivered on time, in schedule and very importantly, on location!" Trump said in his letter to Pelosi.
Soon, thereafter, the House speaker made it clear that the President is not welcome at the Congress on January 29.
After receiving the letter from Pelosi, Trump said he would soon announce his next course of action. "We'll see. We'll see. Well, it wouldn't be very hard, but that's not what she means," he said.
"We will have a response to Nancy Pelosi in due course. But what she's doing to the American people, what she is doing to our Constitution, is a disgrace," he rued.
"And it's very sad. I think it's a very, very bad thing for our country, and it's a horrible precedent. And we have many positive things to say, but we also have things that we want to turn into positives that are big negatives," Trump said.
Ruling out any change in his position on the wall, Trump said that it was "too bad" what Pelosi has done.
"It's radical Democrats. They've become a radicalised party. They really have. They have become a radicalised party. I actually think they've become a very dangerous party for this country. If you listen to what they're saying, what they're doing, I think they've become a very very dangerous party for this country," he asserted. -- PTI
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