Top energy, environment Dems to boycott Trump address

GREENWIRE | Top Democratic lawmakers on energy and the environment will skip President Donald Trump’s address to Congress on Tuesday.

Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, announced Tuesday morning he would pass on the event. Heinrich is the highest-ranking energy-adjacent Democrat to announce a boycott so far.

“I’m not going to President Trump's Joint Address tonight,” Heinrich said. “I'll start attending when he starts following the law.”

Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.), a vice chair of the Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition and member of the Financial Services Committee, will similarly not be in the House chamber. Casten released a fiery statement explaining why he won’t attend.

“While I have great respect for the office of the President of the United States, I have no respect for the man who currently occupies it,” he said, citing what he called Trump’s incitement of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, support of Russia and trade wars against allies. "The president has consistently violated our constitution, our laws, and the integrity of our institutions.”

Casten added, "To attend tonight’s Joint Session of Congress might be mistakenly assumed to imply I have respect for Donald Trump, Speaker Johnson, or the rest of Trump’s enablers. To attend and be disruptive might be mistakenly assumed to imply I do not respect the office of the Presidency or the Congress of the United States.”

Also planning to boycott Trump's first address to Congress of his second term is Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, top Democrat on the Finance Committee.

Several Democrats attending have invited people affected by the administration's steps to slash the federal workforce and spending.

Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.), for instance, will take a fired park ranger, arguing that "Trump should have to face the hardworking park rangers they sacked."