Mode Democrats are joining a boycott of President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday.
Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Sen. Ruben Gallego recently joined the ranks of Democrat lawmakers over the weekend.
“I am not going to the state of the union,” Gallego said in a video posted to social media on Saturday. “There’s more productive things than I can do with my time than just sitting there for two hours and clapping on cue. Right now, this country is hurting.”
Instead, the senator will be at home in Arizona during the address.
Schiff’s participation in the Boycott was also announced on Saturday. MeidasTouch wrote on X that Schiff will instead speak at the “People’s State of the Union,” a counter address hosted by the news outlet and progressive aligned non-profit MoveOn Civic Action.
Democrats announcing their boycott the State of the Union comes after progressive-aligned organizations, like Amplify Edge’s “Young People Address the Nation” campaign, pressured Democratic lawmakers last week to boycott the address.
Schiff and Gallego have not responded to The Daily Signal’s request for comment.
As the boycott grows, the left-leaning sports and political commentator Stephen A. Smith has come out against Democrat theatrics.
Smith said on his SiriusXM radio show that the Democrat’s refusal to attend the address “ticks him off,” calling them “juvenile.”
“Why do they get to circumvent the need and the insistence of mere decorum? This is the kind of stuff that ticks me off,” Smith stated. “At some point in time, ladies and gentlemen, there’s got to be an adult in the room.”
“If you’re going to act as juvenile, as petulant, as petty as you accuse president of the United States to be, how are you ever going to hold a high moral ground at least high enough to judge him accordingly?” Smith added.
During Trump’s address to Congress last year, some Democrats tried to steal the show. Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, interrupted the speech with shouts and gestures several times before he was removed from the chamber.
Schiff’s RSVP to the event hosted former MSNBC anchors Joy Reid and Katie Phang, comes after 12 of his Congressional colleagues, including Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md; Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill.; and the chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, announced last week that they would not “legitimize” Trump’s “lies.”
“Donald Trump will use the State of the Union address as a platform to gaslight the American people and normalize and justify their terror, abuse, and violations of our rights. I refuse to legitimize it,” Ramirez stated in a release.
Van Hollen added on X that this “cannot be business as usual” because “Trump is marching America towards fascism.”
