President Trump just sent a letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi telling her he "looks forward" to seeing her on Capitol Hill next Tuesday when he delivers his State of the Union address. The Democratic leader recently tried postpone the presidential address in light of the government shutdown, but the president told her he'd (again) be accepting her initial invitation.
New Trump letter to Nancy Pelosi: “I look forward to seeing you” next week for State of the Union pic.twitter.com/sD3uypkD0l
— Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) January 23, 2019
In the letter, Trump is careful to note that Pelosi's initial offer was sent "long after" the shutdown first began. In her follow up letter, she shared her concerns that Secret Service would be ill prepared for the State of the Union. The president put that worry to bed too, telling her that he received assurances from the agency that they had no security concerns.
In related news, Fox News's John Roberts reported that a DHS official told him that no one from Pelosi's office had called the Secret Service to check.
Trump plans to proceed with his speech. Yet, as some reporters have noted, it takes a joint resolution from Congress to permit the State of the Union. Neither the House or Senate has passed one yet.
In other words, this is getting interesting and we are yet again in "unprecedented" territory.
The government has been shuttered for 33 days now, as President Trump and the Democrats continue to spar over border security. It's the longest government shutdown in history.