February 4, 2020

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley Boycott Trump’s State of the Union

The progressive first-term Democrats refuse to “normalize Trump’s lawless conduct.”

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

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Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), two of the most prominent progressive Democrats in Congress, announced Tuesday that they would protest President Donald Trump by refusing to attend his State of the Union address.

“After much deliberation, I have decided that I will not use my presence at a state ceremony to normalize Trump’s lawless conduct & subversion of the Constitution,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “None of this is normal, and I will not legitimize it.”

Trump will address the nation Tuesday night amid a Senate impeachment trial against him, as former president Bill Clinton did in 1999. The Republican-majority Senate will most likely vote to acquit Trump on Wednesday.

Minutes earlier, Pressley also tweeted that she would not attend the State of the Union. They join several other Democrats boycotting the address, including Reps. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, Steve Cohen of Tennessee, and Frederica Wilson of Florida.

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We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

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Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

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