California’s Congress members’ plans for Trump’s State of the Union address
Boycotts. Prebuttals. Rebuttals. Historical guests.
California members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives’ approach to President Trump’s state of the union address Tuesday night is as diverse as their politics and districts.
Before the speech, Sen. Adam Schiff described Trump as an out-of-control and corrupt president who ignores pressing issues like climate change to enrich himself and punish his political enemies, including turning the U.S. Justice Department and the rest of the federal government into a “personal fiefdom” unconstrained by law.
“From the birth of our nation, our founders were obsessed with preventing tyranny and the emergence of another king, another despot. They created checks and balances, separation of powers and an independent judiciary. They understood that the greatest threat to freedom is not foreign occupation but the concentration of power in the hands of a single person or group,” Schiff said on the U.S. Senate floor. “This President has systematically dismantled those safeguards in his second term.”
Schiff is among Democrats who boycotted the speech. Other Californians include Reps. Robert Garcia (D-Long Beach), Sara Jacobs (D-San Diego), Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Los Angeles) and Julia Brownley (D-Westlake Village).
Sen. Alex Padilla, the son of immigrants who were attacked when he tried to ask a question of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem during ICE raids in Los Angeles last year, will respond in Spanish after Trump’s speech on television and online.
California has the largest congressional delegation in the country, so elected officials often have a very large presence in the nation’s capital. One particularly memorable moment was when then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) ripped up a copy of Trump’s speech following his 2020 state of the union address.
It’s unclear if California’s elected officials are planning anything this dramatic tonight. But their guests are remarkable.
Although Garcia did not attend the speech, his guest at the event is Annie Farmer, who was abused by sexual predators Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell when she was 16 years old. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Dublin), who is in attendance, brings in Teresa J. Helm, another survivor of Epstein.
Others plan to bring voters from their districts — Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Corona) is bringing in his longtime friend, Riverside County auditor-controller Ben Benoit.
Pelosi’s guest is the Rev. Devon Jerome Crawford, senior pastor of the historic San Francisco Third Baptist Church, and he has surprise guests, some of whom will be announced later tonight.
