Not all lawmakers will be attending President Donald Trump’s address before a joint session of Congress this evening - namely, several high-profile Democrats.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) posted on social media that she'll be sitting out the president's speech
“I’m not going to the Joint Address. I will be live posting and chatting with you all here instead. Then going on IG Live after,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a post on Bluesky.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) during a session to the House of Representatives on Friday, Jan. 6, 2023.
Democrats have seemed to be in discussions on how to respond to Trump’s speech. According to reporting from Axios, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-New York, told his party to avoid disrupting or drawing attention away from the Tuesday speech.
Jeffries comments come as Democratic constituents have urged their representatives to fight back against Trump’s policies.
But Ocasio-Cortez is not the only Democrat who is set to boycott Trump’s speech, here is what you need to know.
Who will be skipping Trump’s address?
Keeping with tradition, Democrats will have an official response to Trump’s speech, delivered by Michigan’s Sen. Elissa Slotkin.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., on Sunday called the address “a farce” he refuses to be a part of.
“I think it's going to be a MAGA pep rally, not a serious talk to the nation,” Murphy told CNN’s Dana Bash.
U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) speaks to the media, on the day of a Senate Democrats' weekly policy lunch on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on Feb. 19, 2025.
Instead, Murphy and fellow Democrat Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii will co-host, along with podcaster and comedian Akilah Hughes, a live stream “prebuttal” beginning before and running through Trump’s speech.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., told USA TODAY he will also be skipping Trump’s speech and instead hold a virtual town hall with his constituents.
Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., will not be in attendance either, Politico reported. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. said she would also not attend the Tuesday night speech.
“I will not be attending President Trump’s address to Congress. The state of the union is that the President is spitting in the face of the law and he is letting an unelected billionaire fire cancer researchers and wreck federal agencies like the Social Security Administration at will,” Murray said in a press release.
When will Trump address Congress?
Trump is set to address a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, March 4.
Multiple media outlets have announced plans to start live coverage of the address at 9 p.m. ET, including USA TODAY, ABC, Fox News, NPR, NewsNation, PBS and more.
Contributing: Sudiksha Kochi and Savannah Kuchar
Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at fernando.cervantes@gannett.com and follow him on X @fern_cerv_.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: AOC says she will not attend Trump's address to Congress on Tuesday
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