(Spoiler Alert: If you are not a State of the Union nerd like I am, you should stop immediately and go read another Townhall columnist like Kurt Schlichter or Matt Vespa.)
On Tuesday evening, February 24th, I had the rare honor of being seated in the Visitors Gallery of the U.S. House of Representatives to observe President Donald J. Trump deliver the annual State of the Union Address to a joint session of the 119th Congress.
Over the years in broadcasting, I’ve had the opportunity to attend countless national political conventions…Presidential inaugurations… honeycombed America, covering candidates for national office, and I even served as campaign manager for a Republican candidate for Congress in Boston. (We lost. By the largest margin in the history of elections in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which—for them—dated back to the days of the Pilgrims.)
Suffice it to say, I’ve had a hands-on, personal interest in our national politics in America most of my life. And getting to even attend the State of the Union Address (much less secure a seat in the Visitors Gallery itself) was a personal bucket list item for years.
Enter Oklahoma’s Josh Brecheen, a committed Christian and a fourth-generation rancher who serves Eastern Oklahoma in Congress. (Prior to his time in the U.S. House of Representatives, Brecheen served as a State Senator in Oklahoma before—wait for it—term-limited himself.) He is the embodiment of the idealistic principled citizen that James Stewart portrayed in Frank Capra’s iconic film “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”
Through Congressman Brecheen’s generosity, I was able to secure a golden Visitors Gallery ticket to this year’s State of the Union; this is no Willy Wonka reference…the Gallery passes were literally outlined in gold foil.
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So along with several hundred other guests, I arrived at the U.S. Capitol when the Gallery doors opened at 6:30 PM; all guests were required to have been carefully screened by security (and required to surrender any electronics, including cellphones and Apple watches) before being escorted to our seats by the 7:30 PM deadline…90 minutes before the speech. I had hoped to jot down a few notes during President Trump’s remarks, but, alas, even my pen was confiscated. “Could be a weapon which could be thrown,” I was told.
For the next hour and a half, we watched lawmakers of both political parties trickle into the House chamber…under the large words emblazoned on the wall just above Speaker Mike Johnson’s seat: “In God We Trust.” (Somehow, at home, we never see that….probably just an oversight by the major networks.)
Milling about were all the familiar figures we see on MS NOW or the FOX News Channel, chatting cordially and being pals. Democrat Rep. Al Green (TX-9) stood just below my seat in Row D of the balcony…exchanging pleasantries with fellow Texas Congressman Chip Roy. To a casual observer, they would be old friends enjoying each other’s company….not the fierce partisans clashing on network TV debates many nights. Could it all be just performance art? You decide.
However, as President Trump entered the House Chamber, Al Green unrolled a little plastic banner reading “Black People Aren’t Apes” and held it up so the President would be photographed passing his juvenile stunt. Republican Reps. Pat Fallon (TX-4) and John McGuire (VA-5) quickly positioned themselves between Green, waving his silly poster and President Trump as he passed; Green stood fast, holding the banner until Oklahoma U.S. Senator Markwayne Mullin tried to snatch it away, and Green was eventually escorted out of the chamber as GOP lawmakers chanted “USA, USA, USA!”
For his part, President Trump delivered one of his best public performances ever over the nearly two hours that followed. Sticking primarily to his written remarks in the Constitutionally mandated State of the Union, he did occasionally veer from the teleprompter with skills honed over years of public appearances (including hosting his own NBC-TV reality series The Apprentice) leaving poseurs like Democrat Reps Ilhan Omar (MN-5) and Rashida Tlaib (MI-12) in the dust.
From my vantage point in the Visitors Gallery, Omar and Tlaib appeared to be deranged, bug-eyed lunatics screaming incoherently at the leader of the Free World during one of our most cherished national events. (At one point, President Trump pointed at all the Democrats in the chamber and stated, “These people are crazy.” That broad brush notwithstanding, Omar and Tlaib stood out as the craziest of the lot.) Whatever your political leanings, you really must admire Donald Trump for his ability to simply ignore the hysterics in the House chamber as he kept addressing the worldwide TV audience watching the State of the Union.
Punctuated by emotional moments like the arrival of the victorious U.S. Men’s Olympic Hockey Team to thunderous applause (footnote: these awesome athletes mingled with guests prior to the speech, allowing several civilians to pose wearing their actual gold medals, which are heavy) and First Lady Melania Trump awarding the Congressional Medal of Honor to 100-year-old retired U.S. Navy Captain and Korean War veteran Royce Williams…this was a State of the Union evening that will long be remembered as one of the very best ever.
Wending my way out of the Capitol through the underground tunnels that lead to the Longworth and Cannon buildings, where Congressional offices are housed, I couldn’t help feeling so blessed that a simple husband and father like me had been accorded the honor of a lifetime by being granted access to personally experience this special and majestic event.
As President Trump himself stated in his closing moments, “God bless the United States of America.”
Tom Tradup is Vice President/News and Talk Programming at Dallas-based Salem Radio Network. He can be reached at ttradup@srnradio.com
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