On eve of impeachment verdict, Trump tees up State of Union

WASHINGTON — President Trump on Tuesday delivered his State of the Union address on the eve of his likely impeachment acquittal and in the aftermath of the Democratic Iowa caucus debacle in the race to replace him.

The first president to run for re-election after being impeached, Trump aimed to use his nationally televised speech to lay out his record as the rationale for a second term amid suspense about whether he would address the charges against him. He will speak from the well of the House of Representatives, on the opposite side of the Capitol from where the Senate one day later is expected to acquit him largely along party lines.

“This is a president with an enormous sense of drama and a background in television who understands that the setting gives him an opportunity,” said presidential historian Michael Beschloss. “This is an opportunity to set the course for re-election.”

His optimistic speech aimed to look past the impeachment trial that has consumed Washington in favor of a recitation of accomplishments and promises — though Trump told TV anchors at a midday meal that his address would be “extraordinarily low key.”

Trump stood before the very Democratic House members who have voted to remove him from office — and those senators, mainly Republicans, who are expected to acquit him when the Senate trial comes to a close.

Also in the joint House-Senate audience were some of those Democrats who have been vying to take his job. Trump tweeted exultantly Tuesday that the caucus chaos showed Democrats were incompetent and should not be trusted to run the government.

Trump spent the hours before his speech tucked away at the White House, hosting network anchors for lunch while working on final drafts of the address. He entered the moment on a roll, with his impeachment acquittal imminent, his job approval numbers ticking upward and Wall Street looking strong. Aides played down the possibility that he would use the address to seek vengeance over impeachment.

“I think that this has gone on for too long and I think that, if you look at the ratings, the American people are frankly bored of it,” White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham told Fox News early Tuesday. “They want to hear what the president has done for this country and what he is planning to do for this country, so it will be very forward-facing.”

In the closest historical comparison, Bill Clinton did not mention his recent impeachment when he delivered his State of the Union in 1999. In his address a year ago, Trump did remain on message, making no mention of how Pelosi had originally disinvited him from delivering the speech during the longest government shutdown in the nation’s history.

Trump’s speech was focused on highlighting the economy’s strength, including low unemployment, stressing how it has helped blue-collar workers and the middle class. His speech also stressed the new trade agreements he has negotiated, including his phase-one deal with China and the United States-Mexico-Canada agreement he signed last month.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3bb0D3r