The annual State of the Union (SOTU) address has become little more than a formal political rally for the president of the United States. True to form, President Trump has reduced it to little more than a farce, featuring his now familiar shameful and shameless shtick, measure for measure.
This is why I stopped watching it years ago. Nothing vindicated my doing so this time quite like the childish way Trump began the night by refusing Speaker Pelosi’s customary handshake. Remarkably, she later compounded this childishness when she ended the night by shredding her copy of his speech for all the world to see.
To be fair, at least she made a good line out of her sourpuss turn:
He shredded the truth, so I shredded his speech.
Yet Trump reportedly laced this SOTU address with so many outrageous lies and political stunts, those childish moments pale into insignificance.
His lies were expected, of course. But this stunt really bothered me:
President Donald Trump welcomed Venezuelan President Juan Guaido to Tuesday night’s State of the Union address, the rightful leader of Venezuela while dictator Nicolás Maduro clings to power.
‘All Americans are united with the Venezuelan people in their righteous struggle for freedom!’ he said.
(Brietbart, February 4, 2020)
As it happens, I exposed the big lie behind this stunt nearly a year ago in “Cry for Venezuela” March 4, 2019. Here, in part, is what I wrote back then:
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Guaido seems destined to end up like Morgan Tsvangirai. He was the duly elected president of Zimbabwe who had the kind of US-led support Guaido has today.
Yet Tsvangirai spent most of his presidency living in exile or under house arrest at the behest of that country’s strongman, Robert Mugabe. Tsvangirai even served an embarrassing and self-abnegating stint as Mugabe’s prime-ministerial puppet. …
Trump is offering Guaido little more than trademark bluster with his saber-rattling rhetoric. He clearly does not have the cojones to launch military intervention to remove Maduro; you know, like the ones former President George H.W. Bush showed when he removed Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega.
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Meanwhile, Putin’s Russia is plying Maduro with as much military support as Xi’s China is with economic support. This, while Trump’s America continues plying Guaido with empty promises (i.e., providing comfort to this fool).
Hell, Trump couldn’t even bother to show Guaido enough respect last night to have him sit next to the First Lady. Instead, he reserved that place of privilege for a more Trumpian guest – the notoriously misogynistic and racist talk show host Rush Limbaugh.
And, as if that were not disrespectful enough, here is how Trump gave Guaido another dose today:
The White House on Wednesday abruptly canceled its planned pool coverage of President Donald Trump’s meeting with Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó right after Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) announced he would vote to convict President Donald Trump on charges of abuse of power.
(Raw Story, February 5, 2020)
Trust me, that White House photo-op would’ve meant the world to Guaido — as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would readily attest. But Trump clearly couldn’t care less. He didn’t have to cancel that meeting. Because he knew full well that the only thing Romney’s vote is going to cost him is bragging rights for having corrupted and co-opted every single member of the Republican Party.
Related commentaries:
Pelosi…
Guaido…
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