By Tashi McQueen
AFRO Staff Writer
tmcqueen@afro.com
Several Democratic lawmakers, including Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D-Md.-7), are choosing to sit out the 47th president’s first congressional address of his second term.
“Donald Trump and Elon Musk are destroying the state of the union,” said Mfume in a statement on March 4. “I don’t need to be there to watch him claim otherwise.”
The president’s address will air on March 4 at 9 p.m. ET.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) also shared that she would not be attending the president’s address.
“I’m not going to the joint address,” said Ocasio-Cortez via the social media app, Bluesky, on March 4. “I will be live posting and chatting with you all here instead. Then going on IG Live after.”
While several other Democrats said they too would not be attending the ceremony, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) are among the Democrats who shared that they would attend.
In a letter to House Democrats on March 5, Jeffries encouraged Democrats to turn out to the address but recognized that it would come down to a personal choice for each legislator.
“Given my responsibilities in the House, I plan to attend the speech, along with other members of the Democratic leadership, to make clear to the nation that there is a strong opposition party ready, willing and able to serve as a check and balance on the excesses of the administration,” said Jeffries in the letter. “The decision to attend the joint session is a personal one and we understand that members will come to different conclusions. However, it is important to have a strong, determined and dignified Democratic presence in the chamber.”
Alsobrooks said she is attending because “Maryland deserves to have a presence in tonight’s speech.”
“I’m grateful that Ottis Johnson, Jr. (national vice president of the 14th District of the American Federation of Government Employees) will be joining me tonight to hear directly from this President,” said Alsobrooks in a statement on March 4. “Ottis Johnson, Jr. isn’t just joining as my guest, he’s been in this fight alongside me to save our American jobs, to protect the millions of dedicated civil servants who work to improve the lives of the American people.”
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