Trump can show up to deliver the State of the Union, but Pelosi could shut off the lights and keep out cameras – Washington Examiner

In the latest twist in the ongoing saga over the State of the Union, President Trump on Wednesday wrote that he planned to ignore House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s disinvitation and proceed with delivering his speech on Jan. 29 “on time, on schedule, and very importantly, on location!”

So can Trump simply show up to the House of Representatives to deliver his speech? And if he does, can Pelosi just have security kick him out?

The answer is multi-layered.

Under the rules, declaring a formal joint session of Congress requires the agreement of both the House and Senate. Without Pelosi’s consent, in other words, there can’t be a joint session.

At the same time, however, as described by McClatchy, no rules would prevent Trump from entering the House chamber, or speaking on the House floor, whenever he wants. So he’s perfectly within his powers to show up and deliver his speech.

That said, Pelosi, D-Calif., has other tools at her disposal to thwart Trump. She could shut off the lights, turn off the microphones, and also make sure that no cameras are allowed because the House won’t be in session.

Both parties have done this to each other in the past.

In 2008, during her first term as speaker, Pelosi adjourned without allowing a vote Republicans wanted related to offshore drilling, shut off the lights, and cut off the microphones to block Republicans from complaining about it. Republicans refused to leave the floor and kept on talking anyway.

In 2016, Pelosi was on the opposite side of this sort of situation, when she joined Democrats in staging a sit-in after the Republican majority blocked gun control votes. Democrats remained on the floor in the dark after the House was put in recess and used social media to broadcast video from the protest.

A CNN report at the time noted, “At one point, a police officer told the Democrats that they would be conducting a daily security sweep. ‘I’d ask that you clear the floor while that happens,’ the officer said. Pelosi responded: ‘That’s not going to happen’ and the security check then took place involving five agents and a dog as the House Democratic leader continued speaking, undeterred.”

So, the way things are going, it’s certainly easy to imagine something similar happening. For instance, Trump could show up and start tweeting out photos and videos of him from the House floor ready to deliver the speech and complaining that Pelosi is barring cameras and keeping it dark.

But, while there is some precedent for these sorts of games, it would take things to a new level if something like this were to take place involving the president arriving on Capitol Hill to deliver the State of the Union.

Trump and his team have now had time to discuss various responses to Pelosi’s letter, including the possibility of delivering the speech from the White House, the Senate, or another location. He may have reached the conclusion that simply showing up is a win-win. In this way of thinking, if Pelosi relents, it makes him look like a stronger leader who stared down Pelosi and won. If she pursues some of the strategies above to thwart him, it could potentially backfire and start to make her look like the unreasonable party.

Of course, none of this, in the end, will bring lawmakers any closer to resolving the border wall impasse that has led to the government shutdown.

UPDATE: In the latest turn, Trump has signaled that he will relent, saying, “The State of the Union speech has been canceled by Nancy Pelosi because she doesn’t want to hear the truth.”