House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer Says on CNN ‘The State of the Union Is Off’
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) says that Nancy Pelosi‘s request for a postponement of President Donald Trump‘s State of the Union address should be taken as a disinvitation from Congress.
In an interview on Wednesday with CNN’s Kate Bolduan, Hoyer was asked if the House Speaker’s request to Trump was about security or if it was about not giving the president a platform to speak amid the government shutdown battle. As Hoyer accused Trump of using the shutdown as a negotiation strategy to get his way on border wall funding, Bolduan pressed him by asking “isn’t [Pelosi] just telling [Trump] that this is off until the government is open?”
“Yup,” Hoyer replied. “The speaker is the one who invites the president to speak in the joint session and she has said as long as the government is shut down we’re not going to be doing business as usual…”
“The State of the Union is off?” Bolduan interjected for clarity.
“The State of the Union is off,” Hoyer repeated in affirmation.
Shortly after the interview, Hoyer’s office released a statement saying he “misunderstood” Pelosi’s letter since he didn’t read it yet and wasn’t aware that it wasn’t a formal disinvitation.
Hoyer said on CNN that the SOTU is off, but his spox clarifies: "He hadn’t read the actual letter and misunderstood." Still just a proposal from Pelosi, not a formal disinvitation.
— Jim Newell (@jim_newell) January 16, 2019
Hoyer's office walks this back:
Hoyer spokeswoman Mariel Saez: “Mr. Hoyer had not read Speaker Pelosi’s letter and mischaracterized it.”
Per @RebeccaRKaplan https://t.co/wm3xU8oPd1
— Kathryn Watson (@kathrynw5) January 16, 2019
Pelosi, in the meantime, insists that her request is based on the safety concerns of setting up a State of the Union address while security services and government workers are still furloughed by the shutdown.
Watch above, via CNN.
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