Madam Speaker, ‘power play’ will only embolden
Easy, Madam Speaker. You’re not the president yet.
Nancy Pelosi’s cheap ploy to try to derail President Trump’s State of the Union address will backfire, and shows Democrats are worried that Trump can turn the speech into an effective partisan rallying call.
Maybe Pelosi is drunk with power at her approval ratings finally busting out of the teens, but she can’t seriously think that Trump would actually take her up on the offer to submit the speech in writing while the government shutdown goes on.
Pelosi’s move is not a brilliant “power play,” as the mainstream media suggests. No one is buying her ridiculous argument that the speech will be a security risk because of the shutdown.
Democrats look childish and defensive by disinviting Trump to the U.S. House chamber. Surely most Americans get that this is just another reason why they should be fed up with their government, Congress first and foremost.
Trump should show up at the U.S. Capitol anyway and if he’s locked out, make a speech from the Capitol steps, emphasizing the fact that it’s Democrats — not him — who are shuttering the doors of government.
Or Trump can deliver his address on Jan. 29 from the Oval Office if necessary. It’s not only his right, it’s his constitutional duty. Article 2, Section 3 states the president, “Shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.”
It doesn’t actually help Pelosi and Democrats to have Trump give the speech from the Oval Office, it hurts them. Trump won’t have the distractions of Democrats sitting on their hands or yelling out insults while he offers his take on the State of the Union. He will have the airwaves to himself — before, of course, the networks gladly give Dems a rebuttal.
It will be his second Oval Office address in the past month, and it will have an impact. Despite how Trump’s first speech on immigration was mocked by much of the media, it turned out to be successful for the president’s purposes. His base rallied behind him and support for the border wall actually ticked up, according to polls.
Maybe that’s why Pelosi is now desperately trying to block Trump from another prime-time opportunity to address Americans.
And if the networks somehow try again to refuse to broadcast the speech, that will only give Trump the high ground in the public debate over the government shutdown.
Pelosi may have done a great job retaining her speaker’s seat — quashing a rebellion by U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton. But she’s still a terrible judge of the public mood and will regret handing Trump this opportunity to make history by being the first president ever to get locked out of his own State of the Union.