House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer: ‘The State Of The Union Is Off’

After Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi sent a letter to the White House asking President Donald Trump to postpone this month’s State of the Union address due to security concerns brought about by the ongoing government shutdown, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told CNN that the president’s speech to the nation has been postponed.

Appearing on At This Hour with Kate Bolduan, Hoyer was asked by host Kate Bolduan to clarify Pelosi’s letter as it appeared the speaker was merely asking the president to reconsider another date and she wasn’t rescinding Congress’ invitation.

“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, and —,” Hoyer responded before Bolduan interjected, pressing him on whether the SOTU was off.

“The State of the Union is off,” the majority leader responded.

Bolduan wanted to know what they would do if Trump says he wants to keep the date — if there was a way he could convince Democrats otherwise.

“No,” He said. “Our response will be ‘Mr. President, if you want to open up the government the Senate has seven bills they can use and we’ll send an eighth bill tomorrow’ — today to them that will include disaster relief and there are two disasters and the disasters that is caused by natural causes, natural phenomena and the disaster that has been caused by the President of the United States of shutting down government and locking out 800,000 people from getting paid the money that they have earned.”

We are currently in the 26th day of the government shutdown — the longest in the history of the nation. The State of the Union is currently scheduled for January 29.

Watch the clip above, via CNN.