Some are bringing fired federal workers. Others plan to hand out stickers accusing Elon Musk of “stealing Social Security.” Several will boycott President Trump’s speech altogether.
Congressional Democrats are planning to use Mr. Trump’s first address to a joint session on Capitol Hill since returning to the White House to protest his agenda and his actions — by skipping it, wearing messages of dissent, or by packing the House chamber with Americans who have been adversely affected by the administration’s actions.
“The state of the union is that the president is spitting in the face of the law and he is letting an unelected billionaire fire cancer researchers and wreck federal agencies like the Social Security Administration at will,” Senator Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said in a statement. She said she would not attend Mr. Trump’s address and instead spend the evening meeting with constituents who are affected by the administration’s cuts.
More than a dozen Democrats have announced they would be bringing fired federal workers as their guests to the speech. Several have invited fired veterans to highlight what they say is a disproportionate and unfair targeting of former service members.
And several progressive Democrats are planning to hand out and wear stickers that read “Elon Is Stealing Social Security,” an apparent reference to Mr. Musk’s recent interview with podcaster Joe Rogan in which he called Social Security a “Ponzi scheme.”
“I won’t sit and watch him lie to the American people again,” Representative Becca Balint, Democrat of Vermont, said in a statement explaining why she would not attend Mr. Trump’s speech. She said she would join Senators Chris Murphy of Connecticut, Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland and Brian Schatz of Hawaii to provide live fact-checking of the speech and real-time reactions.
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