Democrats to Make a Spectacle of Themselves at State of the Union

Several Democrats in the House have announced plans to dress in black and invite victims of sexual assault to joint them for President Donald Trump’s first State of the Union address in late January. Determined to turn the #MeToo movement into nothing more than another political football – thus ensuring that many Americans will stop caring about it at all – the Democrats want to make sure they steal the spotlight from what should be Trump’s moment in the sun. They remember his faux-SOTU speech from last year and all of the praise he received in the aftermath, a scenario they are eager to spoil this time around.

From NBC News:

“Some members will be bringing survivors of sexual assault and advocates as their guests,” said an aide to Rep. Lois Frankel, D-Fla., who asked not to be identified. Frankel is a leader of the Democratic Women’s Working Group in the House.

Party leaders generally don’t dictate who rank-and-file members can invite with the one ticket each lawmaker gets to give to a guest seated in a gallery above the House floor where the president delivers the address. And there’s still some uncertainty within Democratic ranks over where to draw the line between addressing sexual misconduct and turning the topic into a partisan political war.

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Already, members of the women’s working group are planning to wear black to the State of the Union on Jan. 30 to show their solidarity with victims of sexual assault.

Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., who is working on a bipartisan bill designed to strengthen sexual misconduct prevention standards in the House, told NBC News that she is encouraging women and men of both parties to join the demonstration.

While Democrats insist that they will not bring any of the women who have accused President Trump of sexual impropriety, the fact that they are casting this as a “Democrat issue” is going to do unimaginable damage to what should be an apolitical movement. Of course, given the way Hollywood put on their little show last Sunday, that cat may be out of the bag already.