Politico | Republicans pray Trump avoids the ‘I’ word in State of the Union address
- With acquittal seemingly assured, Republicans don’t want Trump to give type of speech he’d deliver at a campaign rally
- The president has repeatedly tried to undermine the impeachment proceedings, either when speaking to reporters or on Twitter
This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Marianne Levine on politico.com on February 3, 2020.
Senate Republicans are praying US President Donald Trump does something out of character during his State of the Union address – avoid talking about impeachment.
Trump will deliver his speech Tuesday (Wednesday morning Hong Kong time), one day before the Senate ends its nearly three-week impeachment trial with a likely vote to acquit him. While the president is all but assured to take a victory lap, Senate Republicans don’t want the State of the Union to turn into the type of speech he’d deliver at a campaign rally.
“My advice would be that in the State of the Union he should move on,” said Republican Senator Lamar Alexander.
“The president’s got a good record when you look at the economy and lower taxes and fewer regulations and higher incomes and I think he’d be well advised to focus on that and let the impeachment trial speak for itself.”
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“We’re not done tomorrow and I don’t think it’s appropriate for him to bring it up,” added Republican Senator James Lankford. “He is his own person, obviously he can bring up things as he chooses to … but I’m not coming into that speech to be able to hear more about impeachment.”
The president has repeatedly tried to undermine the impeachment proceedings, either when speaking to reporters or on Twitter.
Just on Monday, Trump reiterated the impeachment inquiry is a “hoax” and asked “where’s the whistle-blower”, referring to the individual who triggered the Democratic-led impeachment inquiry by filing a complaint about the president’s call with his Ukrainian counterpart.
Trump was impeached in December on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress for pressuring the Ukrainian government to investigate his political rivals, including former vice-president Joe Biden, and withholding almost US$400 million in aid to the country.
Former president Bill Clinton also delivered a State of the Union address during the midst of his 1999 impeachment trial and famously didn’t bring up his ongoing trial. Richard Nixon, in his 1974 State of the Union address, asked Congress to end the Watergate investigations, saying “one year of Watergate is enough”. Nixon resigned months later after it became clear he’d be impeached and removed from office.
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Senate Republicans advised Trump on Monday to focus his attention on other topics, like lowering the cost of prescription drugs, the economy, or even climate change, as well as outline his vision for a second term.
“We’ve got a great strong economy, our military is finally being rebuilt under this administration,” said Republican Senator Joni Ernst, a member of party’s leadership.
“There are a lot of really great things he should talk about – and stay away from maybe what the proceedings are. We’re not voting until Wednesday.”
But Senate Democrats aren’t holding their breath for a unifying message from the president and expect to get an earful about impeachment.
“I am almost certain he will” bring it up, said Senator Chris Coons.
“Have you met the man … One of the core arguments is that he is utterly unrepentant, unlike President Nixon and President Clinton, who after their impeachments delivered formal apologies to the country and to the Congress.”
“Predicting what Donald Trump will say is a little bit like buying a lottery ticket,” added Democrat Senator Richard Blumenthal. “But I suspect he will talk about impeachment.”
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Trump’s previous State of the Union addresses have made appeals to national unity and bipartisanship. But he’s also angered Democrats with his rhetoric. Last year’s speech left Democrats fuming after he asked for their help to build a border wall and called for a late-term abortion ban. He also urged House Democrats who had just taken the majority to skip “ridiculous partisan investigations.”
White House officials say Trump is viewing his State of the Union speech as an official relaunch for his re-election bid. Last week, they said they did not expect Trump to mention impeachment and that he would instead focus on other issues like the economy or the trade agreement with Mexico and Canada, which the senate approved last month just before the start of the trial.
White House officials told reporters in a background briefing Friday that the speech would present “a vision of relentless optimism”.
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Still, even Trump’s strongest Capitol Hill allies say that it’s impossible to predict what the president’s message will be until he actually delivers his speech.
“Everyone should just know that Trump will be Trump and that means we don’t know what he’s going to say,” said Republican Senator Kevin Cramer. “I don’t think that he needs to be pressured to be anything other than who he is. I’m not writing his speech. Whoever is knows that there’s a 50-50 chance he’ll read it as written.”
Burgess Everett and Gabby Orr contributed to this report.
