Buzz on the GOP side of Congress is growing for an alternative idea for President Trump to deliver a speech next week now that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rescinded her State of the Union invitation.
Trump “should give #SOTU IN THE SENATE CHAMBER,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, tweeted Wednesday evening.
Soon after, Trump tweeted he would wait to give the State of the Union address until after the shutdown ends. “I am not looking for an alternative venue for the SOTU Address because there is no venue that can compete with the history, tradition and importance of the House Chamber,” he said on Twitter.
In a letter Thursday afternoon, Pelosi, D-Calif., informed Trump she won’t let him deliver his State of the Union address in the House chamber on Jan. 29 unless the government shutdown ends.
Her letter was a response to one Trump wrote just two hours earlier in which the president said he was told by the Secret Service that agents can secure the event without any problems, despite the shutdown, and that he intended to deliver the address as originally scheduled.
In response, Cruz called on the Senate to instead invite Trump to speak and called Pelosi’s move a “partisan stunt.”
“In response to Pelosi’s partisan stunt trying to cancel #SOTU the SENATE SHOULD INVITE #POTUS to give the address in the Senate instead. Art. II Sec. 3 of the Const establishes the State of the Union & Dem obstruction shouldn’t prevent the People from hearing from the President,” Cruz tweeted.
“We’d happily welcome House Members & not let Pelosi’s partisan stunt stop POTUS’s constitutional obligation to address the People on the State of the Nation. And America wants BOTH the government OPEN & the border SECURE,” he added.
.@realDonaldTrump should give #SOTU IN THE SENATE CHAMBER. We’d happily welcome House Members & not let Pelosi’s partisan stunt stop POTUS’s constitutional obligation to address the People on the State of the Nation. And America wants BOTH the government OPEN & the border SECURE. https://t.co/h7G4OtB6ER
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) January 23, 2019
Despite Cruz’s claim of obstruction, the State of the Union has not always been delivered to a joint session of Congress, and in years past it has been submitted to Congress in a written report.
The idea of hosting the State of the Union in the Senate chamber, which is smaller than its House counterpart, has been proposed by other lawmakers, including Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., last week. The decision to invite Trump will ultimately be up to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
Senator McConnell is in charge of the Senate. If Mrs. Pelosi refuses to allow the president to deliver the State of the Union in the House, I propose we move it to the Senate and make it happen!
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) January 17, 2019
Additionally, last week a group of Republican congressmen asked McConnell in a letter to move the speech across the Capitol.
McConnell’s office didn’t immediately return a request for comment about the idea now that Pelosi has shut the door on using the House Chamber.
According to a Courier Journal report Wednesday evening, a McConnell spokesman said last week that a speech in the Senate chamber was a “hypothetical” idea.
Trump has also been given offers to deliver his address in other states, including Michigan and North Carolina.
Pelosi initially sent the invitation to Trump on Jan. 3, but on Jan. 16 she wrote to him to say that the event should be postponed due to security concerns due to the shutdown’s impact on the Department of Homeland Security and the Secret Service.
Later that day, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen pushed back against Pelosi’s assertion that her department and the Secret Service were ill-prepared to ensure the security of top government officials during the State of the Union.
Pelosi’s letter Wednesday made no mention of security.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to show President Trump’s tweet about waiting to deliver a SOTU address until after the shutdown ends.
