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State of the Union: Trump renews call for path to citizenship for 1.8m undocumented immigrants – live
State of the Union: Trump renews call for path to citizenship for 1.8m undocumented immigrants – live
(35 minutes later)
Kennedy: ‘Out of many: one’
He says the “state of our union is hopeful, resilient and enduring.” And he’s done.
"Politicians can be cheered for the promises they make. Our country will be judged by the promises we keep," says Kennedy, ending his 12-min speech. "That is the measure of our character. That’s who we are. Out of many: one." pic.twitter.com/FXa6DL0q62
Heh.
Did Kennedy eat corn on the cob backstage or something?
Here’s the motorcade returning from Capitol Hill:
Successful motorcade with President @realDonaldTrump to #SOTU pic.twitter.com/MYuczf5A5s
Meanwhile, Kennedy:
Kennedy addresses Dreamers in Spanish, then translates: "To all the Dreamers watching tonight, let me be clear: Ustedes son parte de nuestra historia. Vamos a luchar por ustedes y no nos vamos alejar.You are a part of our story. We will fight for you. We will not walk away."
“This is not right,” Kennedy says. “This is not who we are.”
The line is applauded. They must have a few hundred Democrats in there. “It would be easy to dismiss this last year’s chaos as partisan politics. But it’s far greater than that.”
He doesn’t name Trump, but he describes an “American promise” broken by an administration “turning American life into a zero-sum game where for one to win, another must lose.”
He’s pretty forceful in this bit. “We’re bombarded with one false choice after another. Coal miners or single moms... the coast or the heartland...” He describes “a system forcefully rigged for those at the top.” He talks about parents of transgender children and of opioid addicts.
“Here is the answer Democrats offer tonight: we choose both.”
“We choose both.” There’s the slogan. Does that work?
Here’s Representative Kennedy.
He’s in a Massachusetts garage, with a car on a jack, hood up, behind him and everything. It’s a technical school. They’ve supplied him with an applauding audience, in a shift from the more fireside-chat style of previous SOTU responses.
He’s talking about the tenacity of the city – Fall River, Massachusetts.
He’s notably not wearing a jacket. He does look like he’s wearing a ton of lipstick – is that fair to say? His lips are glistening.
He’s saying the economy fails to give workers their fair share.
Then he says “Russia: knee-deep in our democracy.” That’s the first we’ve heard of Russia tonight.
It's like watching something out of North Korea or any other totalitarian regime.
Delegates standing and applauding propaganda.
How utterly dismal. Where did robust democracy go? It's it really so vulnerable to misinformation?
The Democrats look like they passed around a bushel of lemons to suck on before they got there.
Managed just 5 minutes. Could not stand to watch any longer. Orchestrated theatrical Hollywood style rubbish. Like an Oscar ceremony, minus the Oscars. Tedious and sycophantic beyond belief.
Why does he keep applauding himself?
Reactions:
.@megynkelly: "those personalized stories throughout the speech were very effective...he took some of his more controversial stances and told them through people." #SOTU
Most memorable line is there: Americans are dreamers too.
Now we have the forensic analysis of a speech that will be forgotten by the weekend, if not before.
Good speech from Trump, well delivered after a slow start, went long and seemed to drop a bit in energy toward the end. Standard SOTU speech, but the Warmbiers and Ji Seong-ho made it special in other ways. Biggest takeaway: not offering much give on DACA deal.
Bipartisan proposal to bring the country together: SOTU speeches should be 18 mins max
Nailed it!!! #sotu #sotu2018
Twitter says tonight’s speech was “the most-tweeted #SOTU or #JointSession address ever, passing last year’s record of 3m tweets.”
As Trump's speech ends, Democrats run for the exit and Republicans chant "USA USA"
Stick around though – the post #SOTU programming is just beginning. Democrats have at least five rebuttals (two official) and Stormy Daniels is on Jimmy Kimmel. https://t.co/fNhcc2cbaA
About 80 minutes even, he spoke. One-third again longer than Obama but short of the full Clinton.
There’s another USA! USA! chant at the end. Some last applause.
Trump steps down from the rostrum. He shakes some hands on the way out.
So – what did you think?
The MAGA line is a winner for the Republican side.
The MAGA line is a winner for the Republican side.
Here’s the finish:
Here’s the finish:
As long as we are proud of who we are, and what we are fighting for, there is nothing we cannot achieve.
As long as we are proud of who we are, and what we are fighting for, there is nothing we cannot achieve.
As long as we have confidence in our values, faith in our citizens, and trust in our God, we will not fail.
As long as we have confidence in our values, faith in our citizens, and trust in our God, we will not fail.
Our families will thrive.
Our families will thrive.
Our people will prosper.
Our people will prosper.
And our Nation will forever be safe and strong and proud and mighty and free.
And our Nation will forever be safe and strong and proud and mighty and free.
Thank you, and God bless America. Goodnight.
Thank you, and God bless America. Goodnight.
Terrorists are not merely criminals. They are unlawful enemy combatants. And when captured overseas, they should be treated like the terrorists they are.
In the past, we have foolishly released hundreds of dangerous terrorists, only to meet them again on the battlefield -- including the ISIS leader, al-Baghdadi.
So today, I am keeping another promise. I just signed an order directing Secretary Mattis to reexamine our military detention policy and to keep open the detention facilities at Guantánamo Bay.
The president is making a claim that has been debated in legal circles since Guantánamo Bay first received prisoners from the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan: the legal status of the people detained there. Trump argues that they are enemy combatants and not simply criminals, and that the military should be able to detain them indefinitely.
For over four months, the Trump has detained an American citizen without charge under this premise, and attempted to deny his habeas corpus rights.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadu, the rarely seen leader of Isis, was captured not long after the US invasion of Iraq and during the rise of al-Qaida in Iraq, the terror cell in which he became a central figure. He was released from a US detention facility in Iraq in 2004, and went on to eventually help transform al-Qaida in Iraq into Isis.
Trump works his campaign slogan into this part:
Americans fill the world with art and music. They push the bounds of science and discovery. And they forever remind us of what we should never forget: The people dreamed this country. The people built this country. And it is the people who are making America great again.
Trump is moving toward his conclusion. It’s an elegiac passage narrating the American myth. He is talking about the statue of freedom about the Capitol Dome. Here’s the text:
She stands tall and dignified among the monuments to our ancestors who fought and lived and died to protect her.
Monuments to Washington and Jefferson -- to Lincoln and King.
Memorials to the heroes of Yorktown and Saratoga -- to young Americans who shed their blood on the shores of Normandy, and the fields beyond. And others, who went down in the waters of the Pacific and the skies over Asia.
And freedom stands tall over one more monument: this one. This Capitol. This living monument to the American people.
There’s a USA! USA! chant that breaks the mood a bit.
As Donald Trump delivered his State of the Union address on Tuesday, several members of Congress wore black to draw attention to the watershed #MeToo movement around sexual harassment and misconduct.
The lawmakers, most of whom were Democratic women, said they were donning black to reaffirm their commitment to combating sexual misconduct. The show of solidarity comes weeks after celebrities almost uniformly dressed in black at the 2018 Golden Globes in a similar display of support for #MeToo.
Lois Frankel, a congresswoman from Florida who chairs the Democratic Women’s Working Group, told Vox the goal was to send “a message of solidarity with those who are seeking economic security and a cultural shift that enables men and women to work side by side, in safety and dignity, free of sexual harassment, and be paid fairly for the value of their work.”
I'm wearing black to the #SOTU because it is time we all say #TimesUP on sexual harassment & inequality in the workplace - for all industries -- from the restaurant kitchen, to Hollywood, to the halls of Congress. #SOTUBLACKOUT #MeToo pic.twitter.com/nd9p9qJ4iI
The #MeToo moment of reckoning, borne in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, has brought down a series of powerful men across several industries.
The political arena has not been spared, with allegations of misconduct forcing Senator Al Franken and Congressman John Conyers, both Democrats, out of Congress. Representative Trent Franks, a Republican from Arizona, was also forced to resign after it was revealed he behaved inappropriately with female staffers.
Members of both parties have banded together to push legislation designed to overhaul the process for reporting harassment on Capitol Hill. Until now, cases have largely been settled in secret using US taxpayer dollars. Victims have been forced to sign non-disclosure agreements, effectively silencing them from coming forward to publicly report abuse or misconduct.
Trump has himself been accused of sexual assault by as many as 17 women. He has denied the claims.
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus also made a statement by wearing red pins in honor of the late Recy Taylor, a black Alabama woman who in 1944 was raped by six white men.
Although the men admitted to assaulting Taylor, two all-white, all-male grand juries declined to indict them. Taylor, who died in December, was memorialized earlier this month by Oprah Winfrey in her viral speech at the Golden Globes.
Trump now launches into what looks to about a 16-paragraph passage about North Korea, fairly bellicose, referring to the “depraved character of the North Korean regime” and saying “I will not repeat the mistakes of past administrations that got us into this dangerous position.”
The parents of Otto Warmbier, the American student tortured in North Korea who died shortly after he returned to the United States last year, are in the chamber along with his brother and sister.
Trump tells his story and promises to honor his memory. His parents are standing and look very sad, crying.
Trump tells another story about North Korean defector Ji Seong-ho, who Trump says “traveled thousands of miles on crutches across China and Southeast Asia to freedom.”
He lifts a pair of crutches high and is cheered. He keeps the crutches up. It’s a powerful image.
Trump:
When the people of Iran rose up against the crimes of their corrupt dictatorship, I did not stay silent. America stands with the people of Iran in their courageous struggle for freedom.
I am asking the Congress to address the fundamental flaws in the terrible Iran nuclear deal.
No details there.
This line is heartily applauded:
Last month, I also took an action endorsed unanimously by the Senate just months before: I recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Then Trump suggests it’s a mistake for the United States to send money to countries that vote against US positions at the United Nations:
Shortly afterwards, dozens of countries voted in the United Nations General Assembly against America’s sovereign right to make this recognition. American taxpayers generously send those same countries billions of dollars in aid every year.
That is why, tonight, I am asking the Congress to pass legislation to help ensure American foreign-assistance dollars always serve American interests, and only go to America’s friends.
Trump promises to refill the Guantanamo prison:
In the past, we have foolishly released hundreds of dangerous terrorists, only to meet them again on the battlefield -- including the ISIS leader, al-Baghdadi.
So today, I am keeping another promise. I just signed an order directing Secretary Mattis, who is doing a great job, thank you –
Here Trump is interrupted by applause...
... to reexamine our military detention policy and to keep open the detention facilities at Guantánamo Bay.”
That line gets an audible “Yeah!” from the Republican side, and clapping.
Trump praises an army staff sergeant, Justin Peck, who risked his life to save a comrade in Iraq and was awarded a Bronze Star. Peck is standing behind the first lady. He receives the waves of enthusiastic applause stoically and shakes Melania Trump’s hand.
In that immigration section of the speech Trump declared that “Americans are dreamers too”.
The statement, which has the air of the “White Lives Matter” response to the Black Lives Matter movement, is getting rave reviews from conservatives on Twitter.
But it has also inspired progressives, and the phrase “Dreamers are Americans too” is now trending.
"Americans are dreamers." - @realDonaldTrump Wait..let us fix that...you meant, @realDonaldTrump, that DREAMers are Americans too? #SOTU pic.twitter.com/FaYHmDN1Ih
No, @realDonaldTrump: DREAMERS are Americans, too. #SOTU pic.twitter.com/xjOF9RCdxP
