White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt prefaced President Donald Trump’s State of the Union Address during an appearance on “Fox & Friends” Tuesday morning, saying it will be “a great speech” that will focus on how he’s fulfilling his campaign pledges to the American people.
Leavitt said that the speech will also focus on those individual Americans who contributed mightily to the nation’s development over the centuries, with an eye toward celebrating the country’s 250th birthday on Independence Day in July.
“He’s going to share the stories of GREAT American heroes who exemplify bravery and the spirit of 1776,” Leavitt told the Fox News program. “And the president is, of course, going to tout his administration’s record-setting accomplishments over the past year while laying out an ambitious agenda to continue making the American dream more attainable for working-class people across the country.”
She added: “It’s gonna be a great speech. There will be some tear-jerking moments as there was last year, in addition to some moments of levity, and so we hope everyone will tune in.”
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Several Democrats have said they won’t attend the address, while others will attend with guests aimed at highlighting the so-called Jeffrey Epstein files ‘scandal’ despite the fact that Trump signed a bipartisan bill to release all of the files, with some redactions to protect victims and comply with court orders.
California Democrats Ro Khanna and Robert Garcia both said they would be at the speech with guests who say Epstein abused them or who want the federal government to be more open about releasing related records.
Khanna said he would bring Haley Robson, a woman who has discussed her experience publicly. Garcia said he would bring Annie Farmer, another survivor who is pushing for more files to be made public – though the administration has said everything has been released.
Other Democrats will bring people who say they were detained by ICE during the protests and riots in Minnesota that broke out after Renee Nicole Good died.
Some Democrats have invited family members of the late Virginia Roberts Giuffre and other Epstein survivors to talk about their worries about how the Justice Department is handling the release of millions of pages of documents under the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
Congress passed – and Trump readily signed – the act late last year, and some 3.5 million documents related to multiple Epstein investigations have been released. Democrats had no interest in the files during Joe Biden’s presidency. Also, Trump campaigned on releasing the files.
Democrat Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar announced she is bringing four guests to President Donald Trump’s SOTU speech Tuesday night.
She claims three were detained by ICE in Minnesota — including Aliya Rahman, who appeared in a viral video showing federal agents pulling her from her vehicle, the New York Post reported.
Omar will be taking Rahman, Mary Granlund, Mubashir Hussen and Gerardo Orozco Guzman.
“The stories of these four Minnesotans reflect how ICE’s reckless actions in Minnesota through ‘Operation Metro Surge’ have devastated Minnesotans’ safety and economic security,” her press release stated.
The invitations come ahead of Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress Tuesday evening, where he is expected to outline policy priorities on issues including economic growth, national security and immigration.
Democratic lawmakers have said the guest selections aim to draw attention to the ongoing debate over transparency and accountability in the Epstein case and to spotlight the impact of federal immigration enforcement actions.
In September, Robson joined Khanna and Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, along with several alleged survivors of Epstein, outside the U.S. Capitol. She urged the administration to release the Epstein files and ensure accountability.