Congressman Mo Brooks (AL-5) is not happy with President Donald Trump’s decision to delay his State of the Union address, calling the president’s seeming acquiescence to Speaker Nancy Pelosi “inexplicable” and “a victory for the Democrats.”
In an interview on Talk 99.5’s “Matt & Aunie Show,” Brooks lamented how the mainstream national news media has become “the communications wing of the national Democratic Party.”
Because of this bias, Brooks believes, Trump and Republicans cannot get the truth out about critical issues, specifically the current partial government shutdown and the border security “national emergency.”
“The State of the Union each year is the biggest stage that a president has in which to deliver a message to the American people. There is no other stage that comes close to the importance of that one,” Brooks told the radio hosts Thursday. “Nancy Pelosi did not want President Trump to have a stage where he could communicate to the American people the truth of what is going on. And so she, from a strategic standpoint, exercised good strategic judgment and said, ‘We’re not going to allow it.’ Because it would erode Democrat support if the president goes straight to the American people and bypassed the sycophants in the national news media that cover up for the national Democratic Party.”
He continued, “And unfortunately, as the speaker of the House does have control over the floor of the House, Nancy Pelosi had every legal right to cancel – or delay – the State of the Union address.”
However, while Brooks said Pelosi had the right to do what she did and served her party well by doing so, he also advised that Trump should have exercised his right to deliver the address from an alternative location.
“Personally, I was encouraging the White House to go ahead and have it in a different venue, whether it be on the Senate floor, whether it be in a border state, but to have it in a timely fashion,” Brooks explained.
“The symbolism of what just transpired definitely helps the Democrats because it is a victory for the Democrats,” he outlined. “So, I think you’re going to see the Republicans weaken a little bit, I think you’re going to see the Democrats strengthen a little bit, and the net result will be thousands of Americans each year will still lose their lives because of the conduct of illegal aliens or because of the drugs that are being shipped over and through our porous southern border.”
When asked by Aunie what the White House strategy was behind delaying the State of the Union, Brooks succinctly said, “I don’t know.”
He then added, “Not what I would have done.”
“Under these circumstances, given what is going on in our country, I believe it is imperative for the President of the United States to communicate directly to the American people about what he is doing and why. And during a national emergency such as we have on our southern border, is an appropriate time in which to have that communication. To me, it’s inexplicable. I don’t understand it,” Brooks said.
Sean Ross is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
