Around half of Democrats skip Trump State of the Union

Source: msn/Axios

8h


Roughly half of House and Senate Democrats skipped President Trump's State of the Union address on Tuesday, an Axios headcount found.

Why it matters: The massive boycott represents a shift in American political norms as the party's grassroots have pressed lawmakers to be more partisan and less conciliatory towards Republicans.

Several members of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries' (D-N.Y.) senior leadership team were among the lawmakers who boycotted the speech, most notably Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.).

"Rather than listen to Donald Trump lie to the American people, I will be hearing from the people of my district," Clark said in a statement ahead of the speech.

By the numbers: Axios counted 20 Senate Democrats and just under 110 House Democrats in the chamber at the start of Trump's speech.

That is roughly half of each party's chamber Democratic caucus.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/around-half-of-democrats-skip-trump-state-of-the-union/ar-AA1X0Xry

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That's actually more than I expected as although it was continually reported that a "couple dozen" had explicitly indicated they would not attend and/or would attend the "People's State of the Union", the media reports were downplaying who would not be there (including emphasizing a group that would be there "wearing white" ).

There are currently 214 Democrats in the House (with 1 vacancy to replace Mikie Sherrill) and 45 Democrats (+ 2 (I)s who caucus with Democrats) in the Senate.