Shutdown Shenanigans: Rep. Pelosi’s SOTU Scrap
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has requested that the State of the Union Address be canceled because of security concerns due to the government shutdown (“Pelosi’s ploy,” Jan. 17).
Apparently, she does not feel the same way about border security. Tom Vespo, Bethpage
Pelosi proposes delaying the president’s State of the Union due to security. I say hogwash, and so does the Department of Homeland Security.
She realizes the president will plead his bordersecurity case to a national audience, and then she and Sen. Chuck Schumer will be pressured by the American people to act like legislators instead of schoolchildren. Earl Beal Terre Haute, Ind.
There’s only one reason Pelosi doesn’t want Trump to give the address: She does not want to be seen sitting expressionless behind Trump when Republicans applaud his desire to secure the border. Those are very bad optics. Jack Stevens Woodmere Pelosi wants to delay the State of the Union, saying security will be lax, which she knows is untrue.
The real reason is that Pelosi doesn’t want to see “angel parents,” whose children have been killed by illegal immigrants, sitting with the first lady.
It’s possible these parents wouldn’t belong to this club if a border barrier had been in place, an idea she and the other liberal hypocrites supported in the past. JR Cummings Manhattan
I think the problems Pelosi has with her own caucus — socialists to the left, moderates in the middle and no one on her right — has caused her to come up with this crazy idea of postponing the SOTU.
I suggest that the president go to the border and give a speech in front of supporters. I’m sure that will generate more interest in border security and putting up a barrier than speaking before Congress. Richard Ketay Newark, NJ
I’m sure Pelosi doesn’t want to give the president a national forum to press the need for a wall and depict Democrats as weak on national security.
But, by denying the president the opportunity to speak on the floor of the House, she opens the door for him to speak anywhere he sees fit. He can talk to the nation on the floor of the Senate, in the Oval Office, at the southern border or even at a campaign rally arena.
Once again, the dimwitted Democrats have overplayed their hand while playing into Trump’s strength. Jack Kaufman Long Beach