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President Donald Trump gave his official State of the Union address for 2020 tonight to a joint session of Congress. Trump addressed a number of issues important to Americans, including national security, jobs, immigration, and the economy. If you weren’t able to watch his speech live, you can rewatch the entire video in the story below.
This will end up being one of the biggest speeches Trump delivers, as State of the Union addresses typically draw massive audiences. In February 2010, Barack Obama’s State of the Union was seen by 48 million viewers, according to TIME. Trump’s address to Congress in February 2017 drew about the same numbers: 47.74 million viewers across 11 networks, according to Variety. His 2018 SOTU had about 45.6 million viewers. So we can expect tonight’s to be viewed by about the same number of people.
Here’s a full video from C-SPAN of the State of the Union. It will be live until after the Democratic response, and then it will convert to a fully re-watchable video.
Or you can watch a version from PBS News Hour below.
Before the State of the Union even began, we knew that Trump’s theme was going to be “The Great American Comeback,” ABC 12 reported. Officials said that Trump was going to keep the speech optimistic, talking about topics such as a “Blue Collar Boom” from a trade deal with China, along with deals with Canada and Mexico.
Trump was also expected to talk about working families, school choice, and paid family leave, along with national security, immigration, sanctuary cities, and healthcare. The White House has indicated that he will talk about prescription drug prices and compare his plan to those championed by Democrats.
It’s been a crazy 24 hours in the political world. The Iowa caucus results were delayed due to errors with the app, causing a lot of conspiracy theories and concerns to be voiced online. Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders decided that he will not be attending Trump’s State of the Union today. Instead, Sanders will be delivering his own address at a New Hampshire rally. Then later in the evening following his New Hampshire rally, Sanders will be giving his own State of the Union response. Sanders’ rally will be at 6:30 p.m. Eastern and his SOTU response will be at 10:30 p.m. Eastern.
Other people are boycotting the State of the Union too. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter: “After much deliberation, I have decided that I will not use my presence at a state ceremony to normalize Trump’s lawless conduct & subversion of the Constitution. None of this is normal, and I will not legitimize it. Consequently, I will not be attending the State of the Union.”
After much deliberation, I have decided that I will not use my presence at a state ceremony to normalize Trump’s lawless conduct & subversion of the Constitution.
None of this is normal, and I will not legitimize it.
Consequently, I will not be attending the State of the Union.
Ocasio-Cortez wrote: “After much deliberation, I have decided that I will not use my presence at a state ceremony to normalize Trump’s lawless conduct & subversion of the Constitution. None of this is normal, and I will not legitimize it. Consequently, I will not be attending the State of the Union.”
Ayanna Pressley is also boycotting tonight.
Ayanna Pressley is boycotting SOTU
So it appears that a number of Democrats will not be at the SOTU tonight, but it’s likely that most of the Republicans will indeed be there. You can watch both the SOTU full video and the Democrats’ response in either of the two videos at the beginning of this story.
After Trump speaks, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will deliver the Democrats’ official response to the State of the Union.
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