Trump aims to move past trial, aides assert
Speech to Congress said to focus on unity
WASHINGTON — Standing before lawmakers in the Capitol where his impeachment trial will still be underway, President Donald Trump on Tuesday night will declare the state of the union to be strong as he seeks to unify the country, his aides said.
After becoming the third president in U.S. history to be impeached, Trump will try to move forward in his annual address to Congress, aides say, offering an optimistic message that stresses economic growth.
But the impeachment proceedings will hang over him as he stands in front of the lawmakers who have tried to remove him from office — and those who are expected to acquit him Wednesday when the Senate trial comes to a close.
Senior administration officials were tight-lipped about the extent to which Trump would mention his impeachment, which he has denounced as a “witch hunt” orchestrated by Democrats to try to undo the results of the 2016 election and harm his reelection chances in November. They stressed that his prime-time speech was still a work in progress.
But they said Trump sees the speech as an opportunity to talk about moving the country ahead, contrast his vision with Democrats’ and try to make the case to voters that he deserves four more years in the White House.
“We’re really looking to giving a very, very positive message,” Trump told reporters Sunday during a Super Bowl watch party.
“This has been a very partisan process, and this is an opportunity for him to unify the country around opportunities for all Americans,” said White House spokeswoman Jessica Ditto.
Trump will spend much of the speech highlighting the economy’s strength, including the low employment rate, stressing how it has helped blue-collar workers and the middle class, aides said. A focus will be the new trade agreements he has negotiated, including his phase-one deal with China and the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement he signed last week.
It’s a familiar message to anyone who has seen one of the president’s rallies. But it’s one the White House believes will reach a broader audience and have a more potent effect given the venue, especially among independent voters. His campaign has been courting those voters as it works to stitch together a winning coalition for his reelection.
“Once again, it will present that opportunity for the American people to see how much has been done that not necessarily has been showcased,” said Ditto. “This is one of the president’s best opportunities to talk about his record unfiltered with a captive audience.”
The speech is to include a section on health care. Aides said Trump is expected to go after what one official described as the “radical proposals being floated on the left,” including the call by some Democratic presidential candidates for “Medicare for All.” Trump plans to highlight efforts to reduce drug prices, end surprise medical billing and tackle the opioid epidemic, urging members of Congress to pass legislation to back his efforts.
Trump promised voters in 2016 that he would offer a health care system that was better and cheaper than that established by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Trump has yet to offer any detailed alternative.
While the White House said the president will have message of unity, he will also spend time on issues that have created divisions and resonated with his political base. He plans to again highlight his signature issue — immigration — by trumpeting the miles of border wall that have been constructed. And aides said he will once again excoriate “sanctuary cities” as dangerous criminal havens.
He will again dedicate a section to “American values,” discussing efforts to protect “religious liberties” and limit access to abortions, aides said, as he continues to court the evangelical and conservative Christian voters who form a crucial part of his base.
In addition, he will press Congress to pass legislation encouraging alternatives to traditional public schools and will highlight passage of mandatory paid leave for federal workers, the aides said.
He will try to make the case that the U.S. government is leading by example and send a clear “signal” to the private sector to follow suit, one aide said.
He also plans to discuss foreign policy and national security at length.
Throughout his remarks, Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, who has led House Democrats during the impeachment proceedings, will sit behind Trump.
The audience will include Democrats such as Rep. Adam Schiff of California, who prosecuted much of the impeachment case against Trump on grounds that he obstructed Congress and abused his office by trying to pressure Ukraine to investigate one of his political rivals and by withholding crucial security aid.
Administration officials did not say whether Trump intended to call out specific members.
PREVIOUS SPEECHES
The acrimony isn’t new. Last year, Pelosi disinvited Trump from appearing in the House chamber as a dispute over the president’s border wall led to the longest government shutdown in the nation’s history.
Yet Trump made no direct reference to the shutdown in the speech he eventually delivered to Congress. He used his address to call for a “new era of cooperation” and urged lawmakers to “choose greatness” and “govern not as two parties, but as one nation.”
“We must reject the politics of revenge, resistance and retribution — and embrace the boundless potential of cooperation, compromise and the common good,” Trump said at one point.
The 82-minute speech was also punctuated by several unexpected shows of unity, including when female House members dressed in white joined their counterparts in a “USA!” chant after Trump noted the record number of women in Congress.
Still, there were plenty of subtle digs, including when Trump warned those gathered against pursuing “foolish wars, politics, or ridiculous partisan investigations.”
In past years, the White House has tried to connect with audiences at home by highlighting the stories of guests invited to the speech. In 2018, the world watched as a North Korean defector, who had survived being run over by a train, stood and waved his crutches in the air in a made-for-TV moment. Last year, the guest list featured several veterans who had taken part in the D-Day invasion as well as astronaut Buzz Aldrin.
This year, the White House is expected to offer similar recognition for America’s heroes.
The president wanted to arrive at the Capitol on Tuesday for his State of the Union speech with acquittal secured, but that will not happen. Instead, the trial will resume today for closing arguments, with time today and Tuesday for senators to speak. The final vote is planned for 3 p.m. Central on Wednesday, the day after Trump’s speech.
TRIAL EVIDENCE
On Sunday, Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said Trump was wrong to pressure Ukraine for his own political benefit, but he defended his decision to vote against new evidence in the impeachment trial.
Alexander’s remarks came after the Trump administration revealed the existence of emails that could shed light on the president’s reasons for withholding military aid to Ukraine.
“I’m going to vote to acquit,” Alexander said in an interview on NBC’s Meet the
Press. “I’m very concerned about any action that we could take that would establish
a perpetual impeachment in the House of Representatives whenever the House was a different party than the president. That would immobilize the Senate.”
Some Democrats had been looking to Alexander last week as a potential crossover vote in favor of subpoenaing key witnesses and documents in the Senate trial. But Alexander said Sunday that while Trump’s behavior was “inappropriate,” it was “a long way from treason, bribery, high crimes and misdemeanors.”
“I think he shouldn’t have done it,” Alexander said of Trump’s alleged efforts to pressure Ukraine. “I think it was wrong. Inappropriate was the way I’d say — improper, crossing the line. And then the only question left is who decides what to do about that.”
“Well, who decides what to do about that?” host Chuck Todd asked.
“The people,” Alexander responded.
Pelosi and other leading Democrats have argued that any acquittal without the inclusion of witnesses and documents is meaningless — an argument that Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., re-emphasized Sunday.
“Senate Republicans keep voting for a sham trial without witnesses or documents,” Schumer tweeted. “Make no mistake: The full truth will eventually come out, and Senate Republicans will have to answer for their cover-up.”
Harvard Law School professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz, a member of Trump’s legal team, pushed back against the notion that the trial was a “sham,” saying that Pelosi and others are at fault “for failing to charge an impeachable offense.”
“If they haven’t charged an offense, then maybe he hasn’t been acquitted, but he also hasn’t been charged,” Dershowitz said on Fox News Sunday.