Trump has just sent a letter to Nancy Pelosi telling her he will give his SOTU in the Chamber of the House, as she invited him to this year:
President Trump’s letter to Speaker Pelosi on the State of the Union pic.twitter.com/B4QN9hDJnv
— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) January 23, 2019
JUST IN: In response to Speaker Pelosi, President Trump says he looks forward to speaking in the House chamber to deliver his State of the Union address as scheduled on Jan. 29, despite the speaker's request to postpone the address due to the ongoing government shutdown. pic.twitter.com/cSlRw3zmUH
— NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt (@NBCNightlyNews) January 23, 2019
Here’s the transcript of the letter:
Thank you for your letter on January 3, 2019, sent to me long after the Shutdown began, inviting me to address the Nation on January 29th as to the State of the Union. As you know, I had already accepted your kind invitation, however, I then received another letter from you dated January 16, 2019, wherein you expressed concerns regarding security during the State of the Union Address due to the Shutdown. Even prior to asking, I was contacted by the Department of Homeland Security and the United States Secret Service to explain that there would be absolutely no problem regarding security with respect to the event. They have since confirmed this publicly.
Accordingly, there are no security concerns regarding the State of the Union Address. Therefore, I will be honoring your invitation, and fulfilling my Constitutional duty, to deliver important information to the people and Congress of the United States of America regarding the State of our Union.
I look forward to seeing you on the evening of January 29th in the Chamber of the House of Representatives. It would be so very sad for our Country if the State of the Union were not delivered on time, on schedule, and very importantly, on location!
BOOM! I love it! Trump is basically daring Pelosi to prevent him from using the House. Her letter last week was framed as a suggestion, and it appears Trump is taking it only as a suggestion, and nothing more. And one that he intends to ignore it and accept her previous invitation.
I know that the White House has a backup plan for doing the SOTU elsewhere, in case something happens. But I expect Pelosi won’t want to look like the bad guy and prevent him from using the House.