Democrats Invite Fired Park Rangers, Vets to Attend Trump Speech

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(Bloomberg) — Jessica Martinez, a breast cancer survivor who lives with multiple sclerosis and relies on Medicaid to pay for medication, will be sitting in the House gallery when President Donald Trump delivers his address to Congress Tuesday evening.

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While Trump takes center stage before an expected prime-time audience of tens of millions, Democrats plan to do everything they can through guest invitations, televised rebuttals and even their choice of dress to use the moment to drive home the opposition party’s criticism of Republicans’ political agenda.

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Chief among those themes is Democrats’ argument that Trump and his Republican congressional allies are cutting crucial services for the poor, the disabled and the middle class to fund tax cuts for billionaires.

Fired federal workers and beneficiaries of safety-net programs such as Medicaid will be arrayed in Democrats’ guest seats, including Martinez, a 49-year-old from Peekskill in New York’s Hudson Valley invited by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. She will be joined by a child whose life was saved by federal medical research now under attack, fired park rangers and veterans who lost their federal jobs. 

“We want the focus to be on everyday Americans, their health, their safety,” House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar of California told reporters Tuesday. 

But don’t necessarily expect viral moments, like former Speaker Nancy Pelosi tearing up Trump’s speech in 2020 or Republican Representative Joe Wilson yelling “you lie!” when then-President Barack Obama delivered a 2009 address to Congress. 

“Standing up and shouting may make me feel good but I want the focus to be on what he is saying,” Representative Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, an outspoken progressive, said. “I’m going to be at the speech although I’d rather have a thousand needles poked into my eye than look at that man.” 

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Michigan Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin, who won election in a battleground state with a large base of blue-collar voters that Trump carried, is delivering the party’s marquee response in a televised address following Trump’s speech.

Auto manufacturers based in her home state face severe disruptions from the tariffs on Canada and Mexico Trump imposed on Tuesday because of the industry’s complex supply chain is integrated across North America.

“We’ve got to chart a way forward that actually improves people’s lives in the country we all love, and I’m looking forward to laying that out,” Slotkin said beforehand. 

Many Democratic women in the House and Senate will wear pink to the address, a way of catching the television audience’s attention and signaling protest of Trump’s policies.

The color pink represents women’s “power and persistence,” according to an email sent to members of the Democratic Women’s Caucus. “We’re powerful, passionate,” the statement added, “Trump is raising costs, not lowering them, and we will push back.”

The women’s caucus has previously worn a uniform color, such as white, historically associated with the suffragette voting rights movement, to major speeches to call attentions to policy stances and demonstrate unity.

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At a press conference in the morning, Democratic women held signs criticizing Republican policies including “When Trump cuts Medicaid, pregnant women lose healthcare, grandmas lose nursing care.”

Some other Democrats are boycotting the event.

Maxine Waters of California, the top-ranking Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, said she sees no reason to attend.

“He has disrespected me. He has called me names. Why should I respect him?” Waters said

Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut told CNN he will instead be holding a live prebuttal, because he believes the speech will be a “farce.”

—With assistance from Steven T. Dennis and Emily Birnbaum.

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