Cortney hopped on this yesterday. Apparently, Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants to delay the State of the Union address slated for January 29th. The government remains shut down over Democrats and the Trump White House duking it out over border security; Trump wants it, Democrats don’t, despite all their pleas to the contrary. They’re the party of DACA, sanctuary cities, and not caring about Americans murdered by illegal aliens. I think you all know where they stand.
Pelosi cited security concerns, but Katie mentioned yesterday that this was total trash. The Secret Service is more than capable of handling the situation if need be. In the meantime, Democrats are now boycotting meetings with the White House. The shutdown continues.
So, is there a voice of reason in this particular moment on this particular issue? Not really. Democrats won’t give Trump a cent for his border wall proposal, which isn’t expensive. He just wants $5 billion to build parts of the wall. And Trump has to go through with this because he promised it. It was a hallmark 2016 campaign promise. Delivering on a wall shouldn’t be this hard. It is thanks to Democrats. Also, it’s the right thing to do. Neither side is backing down. Yet, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) seems to be doing double-duty, seemingly cleaning up Speaker Pelosi’s State of the Union address mess. Last night, he told Fox News’ Bret Baier that the SOTU isn’t canceled and that walls aren’t immoral if they keep people safe. My God—are the pod people taking over? Who is this man, and what has he done with Steny Hoyer, leader of House Democrats—who think a wall, is immoral (via Real Clear Politics):
BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS 'SPECIAL REPORT' HOST: Let’s talk about the shutdown and the Democratic Party perspective. House Majority Leader, Steny Hoyer joins us tonight. Mr. Leader, thanks for being here.
REP. STENY HOYER (D-MD), HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER: Hi, Bret. Thanks a lot. Good to be with you.
BAIER: First of all, is the State of the Union officially off?
HOYER: No, I don’t think it’s officially off we -- I had not seen the speaker’s letter. What she suggests is a real security problem unless we’ve opened up the government. So -- and we haven’t gotten a reply from the president and his thoughts. So it’s -- it’s not officially off. No.
BAIER: So the Homeland Security Secretary tweeted out the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Secret Service are fully prepared to support and secure the State of the Union.
We thank the service for their mission, focus, and dedication and for all they do each day and secure our homeland. They suggest there’s not an issue here.
HOYER: Well, I -- I’ve heard that and we’ll see what the president has to say. But obviously the speaker is absolutely correct. This is a very high security event, as you well know.
You have all the Supreme Court, you have all the Cabinet, you have the vice president and the president, and the Speaker of the House and the majority leader and minority leaders of the United State Senate. So it’s -- it’s a very high security issue.
But the other thing from my perspective, Bret, is we are not to be doing business as usual with a government shutdown that has 800,000 of its people not getting paid, including everyone one of secret service agents that there would be assigned.
Yeah, but the security concern is what would have sold this, not because government workers are still at home. The security issue is something that would have been a sticking point, and the agency assigned to protecting the president and the VIPs inside the Capitol are up to the task.
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