President Trump Accepts Speaker Pelosi's Invitation To Give SOTU Address on Feb. 5
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi invited President Donald Trump to give his State of the Union Address on Feb. 5.
WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 25: US President Donald Trump makes a statement announcing that a deal has been reached to reopen the government through Feb. 15 during an event in the Rose Garden of the White House January 25, 2019 in Washington, DC. The White House announced they’ve reached a deal with Congress to end the shutdown and open the federal government for three weeks to give time to work out a larger immigration and border security deal. (Photo by Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images)
The State of the Union address has been rescheduled for Feb. 5, one week after it was originally scheduled to take place, as currently tabled talk of President Donald Trump’s inhumane border wall still threatens the stability of the government.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi extended an invitation to Trump to give his speech, which the president readily accepted, the Associated Press reports.
“It is my great honor to accept,” Trump said in a letter to the Speaker. “We have a great story to tell and yet, great goals to achieve!”
The speech had originally been placed on hold after Pelosi withdrew her initial invitation and expressed that the House would not approve a resolution permitting his address until the government shutdown, which dragged on for 35-days over Trump’s demand for border wall funding, ended.
Trump originally voiced his intentions to go ahead with the address at an alternate location, but eventually gave in to Pelosi’s demands, claiming “there is no venue that can compete with the history, tradition and importance of the House Chamber.”
Pelosi and the Trump reportedly spoke on the phone Monday, after the government was temporarily reopened for the next three weeks, and agreed on the Feb. 5.
Both the House and Senate still must pass a resolution to officially invite Trump to speak to a joint session of Congress. But for now, we can look forward to the address next Tuesday.
The government, in the meantime, will remain reopened until Feb. 15, while politicians continue their talks and negotiations on Trump’s demand for the border wall. Another shutdown could be imminent if an agreement on border security cannot be made, however, Politico notes that Republicans in the Senate don’t relish the idea.
“I did not love the shutdown. I wouldn’t think anybody would have another shutdown,” said Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), a key negotiator in the border security talks told the news site.
“I want to be able to say that: ‘no, it’s not possible that we would go back into another shutdown.’ But I didn’t think the first one that was 35 days was possible either,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who roundly criticized the initial shutdown while it was ongoing, added.
