Jeffries: ‘It’s up to every individual member’ to decide whether they attend Trump’s speech
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and House leader Hakeem Jeffries have given their members discretion in whether to attend the State of the Union this evening.
Dozens of Democrats are planning to boycott, but others will attend in “silent defiance”, Jeffries said.
“It’s up to every individual member to make the decision that makes the most sense for their constituents,” Jeffries told reporters on Capitol Hill.
Jeffries will attend with his guest, a bus driver from his district who has taken on extra shifts to help afford food and healthcare, as well as relatives of the late civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, who died last week.
Key events
Texas representative Tony Gonzales refuses growing GOP calls to resign over former staffer affair allegations
Representative Tony Gonzales refused growing calls to resign from his fellow Republicans today amid a furore over allegations that he had an affair with a staffer who later died by suicide.
The Texas congressman has been accused of sending sexually explicit text messages in which he appeared to pressure the senior staffer to share images of herself and, eventually, coerced her into a sexual relationship.
He has previously denied having an affair with the late staffer, Regina Santos-Aviles, but has not addressed the newly released text messages, which appear to show him pressuring her for intimate photos and discussing sex acts.
Gonzales, who is married with six children, told reporters on Tuesday that he was not going to resign.
There will be an opportunity for all the details and facts to come out. What you’ve seen is not all the facts. And there will be ample time for all of that to come out.
Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky joined Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, Nancy Mace of South Carolina, and others in demanding that Gonzales step down immediately over the report. It followed calls from Texas Republicans Brandon Gill and Chip Roy for his resignation on Monday. “America deserves better,” said Gill, endorsing Gonzales’s main opponent. “Tony should drop out of the race.”
The US House speaker Mike Johnson said earlier today that he would speak to Gonzales about the allegations, which are also being investigated by an internal House ethics commission. The accusations “must be taken seriously”, Johnson said, but he stopped short of calling for his resignation. Donald Trump endorsed Gonzales in December.
“In every case like this, you have to allow the investigation to play out and all the facts to come out,” Johnson said. “If the accusation of something is going to be the litmus for someone being able to continue to serve in the House, a lot of people would have to resign or be removed or expelled from Congress.”
House fails to pass bill in response to 2025 midair collision near Washington DC
Moments ago the House failed to approve a bill crafted in response to last year’s midair collision near Washington DC killing everyone on board.
The legislation would have required all aircraft flying around busy airports to have key locator systems to prevent such crashes.
Here’s more from the Associated Press:
The National Transportation Safety Board has been recommending such Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast systems to be installed since 2008. The bill that already passed the Senate would have required aircraft to be equipped with a system that can receive data about the locations of other aircraft. The complementary ADS-B Out system that broadcasts an aircraft’s location is already required.
The families of the victims who died when an American Airlines jet collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter strongly supported the measure. But the Airlines for American trade group, the military and the major general aviation groups that represent business jets and small plane owners backed a competing and more comprehensive House bill that was just introduced last week.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio was expected to brief top lawmakers Tuesday on Iran as the administration weighs possible strikes. Asked about the briefing, Schumer said if the administration wants to “do something in Iran, and who the hell knows what it is, they should make it public and discuss it with the public, and not keep it in secret”.
“When you do these military operations in secret, it always causes longer wars, tragedy, more expenses and mistake,” he said.
Jeffries, speaking shortly before the briefing was due to begin, said the administration needed to explain its contradictoray positions on the status of Iran’s nuclear program.
“Now we’re to believe that there’s an exigent circumstance where Donald Trump may need to strike militarily in order to prevent Iran, presumably, from achieving its nuclear ambitions,” Jeffries said. “Wait, what happened to Iran’s nuclear program being completely and totally obliterated? Donald Trump’s words, not our words.”
“The American people understand that under no circumstances, should the Trump administration get us into another failed foreign, forever war,” he told reporters. “We know the outcome, particularly in the Middle East: It’s going to cost American lives. It’s not going to lead to any decisive resolution. And it’s going to waste taxpayer dollars that should be spent, making life better for the American people.”
“Congress needs to act and authorize military force before any military action is taken by Donald Trump and his administration,” he added, vowing to make the point “very clearly” in the briefing this afternoon
US to provide on-site passport services in West Bank
US officials have announced the US will begin providing on-site passport services in Efrat – an Israeli settlement in the West Bank widely considered illegal under international law.
It is the first time the US will offer consular services to people in the occupied territory.
According to the announcement, US consular officers will be on site to provide routine passport services for American citizens in Efrat on Friday, with “planned outreaches” in the coming months to “Ramallah, Beitar Illit, Haifa, Jerusalem, Netanya and Beit Shemesh”.
The US Men’s Olympic Hockey Team has arrived at the White House, according to the pool report. Some members of the team are expected to attend tonight’s state of the union their gold medal victory against Canada at the Winter Olympics in Milan.
The Trump administration has faced questions – and backlash – over the decision by FBI Director Kash Patel, an avid hockey fan, to fly to Milan on a justice department plane and attend the game in what a spokesperson has insisted was official business. A video emerged afterward of Patel celebrating Team USA’s victory with the athletes in the locker room after the game. He chugs a drink as beer sprays across the room and Toby Keith’s Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue plays in the background.
“I love America and was extremely humbled when my friends, the newly minted Gold Medal winners on Team USA, invited me into the locker room,” Patel later wrote on X.
Jeffries: ‘It’s up to every individual member’ to decide whether they attend Trump’s speech
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and House leader Hakeem Jeffries have given their members discretion in whether to attend the State of the Union this evening.
Dozens of Democrats are planning to boycott, but others will attend in “silent defiance”, Jeffries said.
“It’s up to every individual member to make the decision that makes the most sense for their constituents,” Jeffries told reporters on Capitol Hill.
Jeffries will attend with his guest, a bus driver from his district who has taken on extra shifts to help afford food and healthcare, as well as relatives of the late civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, who died last week.
Senator Padilla to speak about ‘out of control’ immigration policy in Spanish language rebuttal
Senator Alex Padilla of California, who is delivering the Spanish language rebuttal to Trump’s speech, said he would talk about the Trump administration’s “out-of-control” immigration crackdown that began in his hometown of Los Angeles last year.
“This is not a focus on the worst of the worst,” Padilla said. “The vast majority of the peopel that have been detained, arrested, many deported, without due process, do not have criminal convictions.”
A standoff over reining in ICE has triggered an ongoing funding lapse for the Department of Homeland Security.
He noted that federal agents have rounded up legal immigrants, US citizesn and veterans alike. He also said he would talk about the security of the US election system ahead of the midterms. “The Trump administration is not being shy about threatening to undermine and steal this November election,” he said.
Senator Mark Kelly, the Arizona Democrat who was one of the veterans the Trump administration has attacked as “seditious” over a video urging troops not to follow illegal orders, said he understood colleagues boycotting the president’s speech, but said he would be in the audience.
“I’m going to be sitting there in the House to make a point to this president, who about three weeks ago tried to indict me and try to send me to jail for something I said,” Kelly said. “I will be sitting there to make sure that he knows that so far he has failed, and that the American people, they’re really not into this.”
Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar, wryly suggested she might have the “hottest ticket in town,” seated behind the supreme court justices in the chamber, days after they struck down Trump’s signature tariff policy. “That’ll be interesting,” she said, accusing Trump of fearing the court.
Klobuchar said she was bringing a brewer “walloped” by Trump’s tariffs as a guest to the state of the union. She said he represented the many small business owners who have become “the roadkill” of Trump’s policies.
The Minnesota Democrat, who is running for governor, hailed the resilience of her fellow Minnesotans, saying they showed Americans how to stand up to the president’s administration. “He’s afraid of the voters,” she said.
Top Senate Democrat predicts ‘long, painful and tedious’ Trump speech
Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, predicted a “long, painful and tedious” state of the union speech on Tuesday evening.
The New York Democrat accused Trump of living in a “yuge bubble” with an “ego” that “does not let him see reality”.
“Never in our lifetime have we gone into a state of the union where the president’s rhetoric and the country’s reality are so far apart,” Schumer said at a press conference on Capitol Hill.
Schumer suggested the one topic Trump would “avoid” was the Epstein files.
“When will he release all the Epstein files?” Schumer said, calling it another example of the “corruption” of his administration.
The state of the union is part speech, part spectacle – and one of the enduring rituals are the guests invited to sit in the first lady’s box in the Capitol.
In something of a break from precedent, Melania Trump has invited two guests to highlight her work with the foster care system and a responsible AI initiative, while the president, separately has invited guests to reflect the accomplishments he plans to tout in his address this evening.
“The first lady will have two great children with her as part of her Fostering the Future initiative,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News. “The president himself has invited some extraordinary guests this year who, again, truly exemplify what it means to be a patriotic American”.
The White House announced on Tuesday that Melania Trump will be joined in her box by Sierra Burns, a participant in the first lady’s Foster Youth to Independence Program, and Everest Nevraumont, a 10-year-old Texas student and AI-advocate.
As previously noted, Trump has invited Erika Kirk, as well as a Pennsylvania waitress who is benefitting from a no tax on tips or overtime policy and members of the military.
The White House has also said it’s trying to bring members of the US Olympic men’s hockey team. The team won gold in Italy this weekend after defeating Canada.
