President Donald Trump will be giving his second official State of the Union address to Congress. (His first address in 2017 was to a joint session of Congress, but it was not an official SOTU.) This year will be a momentous speech, considering that it was delayed a week due to the government shutdown, and is being delivered as another shutdown looms. What issues will Trump address? What plans for the future will he talk about? Trump’s speech will begin tonight, February 5, at 9 p.m. Eastern and you can watch it in the video above, courtesy of NBC. Some streams will start earlier than 9 p.m. so you can watch the “red carpet” arrivals of politicians, military, the Supreme Court, and special guests. We’ll also provide additional live streams below so you can choose which stream you’re most interested in watching.
Most of these streams will also include the Democrats’ response to the SOTU along with commentary from political pundits. First, we’ll share some additional livestream videos from mainstream media sources. Here’s one from Fox News:
PBS Newshour’s live stream is below.
If independent media is your preference, News2Share will be livestreaming the protests outside the Capitol. You can visit News2Share’s Facebook page here.
There’s a lot of speculation about what Trump will be addressing during his speech. The White House has already revealed themes for the State of the Union tonight, ABC News shared. The White House has said the SOTU will be optimistic and call for bipartisanship with an “inspiring vision of American greatness.” The title of the speech is “Choosing Greatness” and will include five themes: immigration, trade, infrastructure, health care, and national security. Trump will also speak about Venezuela and abortion. There are also rumors that Trump might speak about his second summit with Kim Jong Un about North Korea. An early excerpt sent to the media reads:
Together we can break decades of political stalemate, we can bridge old divisions, heal old wounds, build new coalitions, forge new solutions and unlock the extraordinary promise of America’s future. The decision is ours to make.”
As always, it will be interesting to see if there are any unexpected interruptions during this year’s State of the Union. In 2009, Rep. Joe Wilson yelled “You lie!” to President Barack Obama during his address to Congress. And in some speeches in the past, Trump has left his teleprompter far behind and gone off script with improvisations that could really take us anywhere.
After Trump speaks, Stacey Abrams will deliver the Democrats’ official response to the State of the Union.