Tonight, President Donald Trump will be giving his first official State of the Union address to Congress. Last year, he spoke to a join session of Congress, but it was not officially called the State of the Union. This year will be a momentous speech, during both a perilous and promising time for the President. Investigations into alleged Russian influence over the election are mounting, while the economy seems to be on the rise and the Dow is hitting historic highs. What issues will Trump address? What plans for the future will he talk about? How many times will he say “fake news”? Trump’s speech will begin tonight, January 30, 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.
If the video above doesn’t work for any reason, or if you want to watch from a different source, we have many other live streams below that you can tune into. Most 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 ABC News:
And here is the live stream from Fox News:
Here is the live stream for the Washington Post, beginning at 8:30 p.m. Eastern:
If independent media is your preference, News2Share will be livestreaming the State of the Resistance protest outside the Capitol starting at 8 p.m. Eastern. This protest will be going on during the speech. The livestream will start on News2Share’s Facebook page here.
There’s a lot of speculation about what Trump will be addressing during his speech. Some believe he’ll talk about his infrastructure plan and ask Congress to commit to new infrastructure spending. Trump has said he will talk about trade and invite Democrats to cooperate on immigration. Trump said about his speech: “We worked on it hard, covered a lot of territory including our great success with the markets and with the tax cut… Hopefully the Democrats will join us (on immigration), or enough of them will join us, so we can really do something great.” Trump is also expected to talk about fair trade, national security issues, and building a safer America. It’s likely that he will also talk about the economy. But will he address Mueller’s investigation at all? A senior administration official told reporters that Trump will be “speaking from the heart” tonight and his theme will be about “building a safe, strong and proud America.” Trump is also expected to talk about tax cuts, rolling back regulations, and how these changes have affected the economy. The broad theme for Trump’s speech, officials said, was “U.S. engagement in the world.”
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, Rep. Joe Kennedy will deliver the Democrats’ official response to the State of the Union. He will deliver his response from his home state rather than attending the speech in person, The Washington Post reported. Elizabeth Guzman, a member of the Virginia state legislature, will also deliver a Spanish-language response, officially sponsored by the Democrats. But Progressives will be delivering responses of their own, official or not. Sen. Bernie Sanders will also deliver a response to the State of the Union via social media. Rep. Maxine Waters from California will also give a response during a BET news special. And Donna F. Edwards, a former Maryland Congresswoman, will also give an address for the Working Families Party.
