President Joe Biden’s second State of the Union

Regardless of whether they favor or disagree with the incumbent commander-in-chief and his policies, parliamentarians are permitted to invite guests to the president’s annual State of the Union speech.

This year, a number of speakers will perform the same function, providing opinions on police and crime, abortion, foreign policy, as well as a variety of other hot-button political and social issues.

Others choose to invite visitors to thank them for their contributions to their states or districts.

Nevertheless, the emphasis on pro and con-law enforcement individuals and people may be the most overt point of contention between Republicans and Democrats when it comes to visitors.

While many Republicans welcomed heroic officers and law enforcement personnel to both commemorate their service and reject Biden’s soft-on-crime views, many Democrats brought victims of police brutality or unjust incarceration.

The third-ranking House Republican and chairwoman of the GOP Conference, Elise Stefanik, is bringing Montgomery County Sheriff Jeffrey T. Smith.

According to the New York lawmakers, inviting Smith shows that she is aware of the difficulties facing law enforcement in ‘fighting against the crises generated by Joe Biden’s failed policies’ with respect to growing crime.

Rep. Mike Thompson of California requested After the Fire USA CEO Jennifer Gray Thompson to attend this year’s annual presentation to a joint session of Congress in order to recognize those fighting wildfires in his state.

Roya Rahmani, a former ambassador from Afghanistan to the United States, will be present in order to emphasize Biden’s disastrous military departure from Afghanistan in August 2021, according to House Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul of Texas.

Representative Ashley Hinson of Iowa welcomed former Army Sergeant Trent Dirks, who used a service dog to overcome drug addiction and better manage his severe PTSD, to discuss the need of mental health services for veterans.

As he noted that his dog “Tracer saved my life and is a significant part of my happiness today,” Dirks added, “I am thrilled to attend the State of the Union Address and to assist raise awareness about the significance of expanding veterans’ mental health care access.”

Rep. Greg Steube of Florida decided against using politics and instead invited the guy who called 911 after falling from a ladder last month.

The 44-year-old lawmaker was sawing tree limbs when he fell 25 feet and broke his pelvis, perforated a lung, and tore multiple ligaments in his neck. His injuries were significant but not life-threatening.

When Darrell Woodie, a delivery driver, saw the fall, he quickly called for assistance. On Tuesday night, he will attend the State of the Union address with Representative Steube.

George Santos, a Republican fantasist who was elected to the House for New York’s 3rd congressional district in the midterm elections of 2022, seems to be troll-ing anyone who are critical of his repeated lying.

The congressman is sending Michael Weinstock, a former assistant district attorney from Brooklyn’s Special Victims Bureau who served as a volunteer firefighter and EMT and was one of the first responders to the terrorist atrocities of September 11, 2001.

In addition to a number of other allegations of lying about his past, education, and ethnicity, Santos is also accused of making up the fact that his mother passed away as a result of the 9/11 attacks.

In according with Santos’ campaign website, his mother Fatima Devolder “was in her workplace in the South Tower on September 11” and survived the terrorist attacks before passing away from cancer a few years later.

This, however, conflicts with information from a 2003 visa application that The Washington Post was able to get that shows she hadn’t visited the country since 1999.

Weinstock said he accepted Santos’ offer to the State of the Union because he has a neurological issue due to his service at ground zero and wants to raise awareness for the healthcare concerns of 9/11 emergency responders.

In order to draw attention to the concerns of escalating violent crime and drug trafficking, South Dakota Representative Dusty Johnsons will be joined on Tuesday by two regional sheriffs, Pennington County Sheriff Brian Mueller and Moody County Sheriff Troy Wellman.

Democrats

Democrats seem to be trying to draw attention to crime as well, but the left seems to be concentrating on the problem of police brutality against blacks rather than the growing rates of violence in American cities.

Tyre Nichols’ mother and stepfather were invited by Representative Steven Horsford, the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. Tyre Nichols passed away in Memphis, Tennessee, a few days after being brutally attacked by five black police officers.

Horsford extended the invitation, but the pair is now Jill Biden’s guests at the event.

The police dragged Nichols out of his vehicle during a traffic check last month, then pepper sprayed and tasered him. The 29-year-old FedEx employee and father of a 4-year-old was then beaten by cops for three minutes.

In the incident’s footage, one cop can be heard telling the other officers, “I hope they stomp his a**.”

Nichols was very ill when he was hospitalized, and three days later, on January 10, he passed away.

The mother and stepfather of Nichols, RowVaughn and Rodney Wells, accepted an invitation to Biden’s address.

Michael Brown Sr. will be a guest of Missouri representative Cori Bush.

One of the first police homicides that sparked the Black Lives Matter movement was the shooting and death of Michael Brown Jr. by police in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014.

Bush introduced her guest by saying, “The police death of Michael Brown in 2014 is what spurred me and many others into lives committed to constructing a world where Mike would still be here with us—a society where his life could not be snatched from him.”

She referred to the most recent police homicide by saying, “A world where Tyre Nichols and the hundreds of other Black people slain by police might live long, healthy lives full of pleasure.”

By bringing one of the two individuals whose sentences were shortened in Pennsylvania as a result of wrongful incarceration allegations, Senator John Fetterman seems to be mocking his former Republican rival Dr. Oz.

Fetterman will be joined by Dennis “Freedom” Horton for the Pennsylvania senator’s first State of the Union address.

In order to get Governor Tom Wolf to commute Horton and his brother Lee’s 28-year sentence for a crime they did not commit, Fetterman, who was Lt. Governor at the time, pushed the governor.

In a statement, Fetterman said: “It’s an honor and a joy to invite Dennis to Washington to attend the State of the Union speech alongside me.” The imprisonment of Dennis and Lee for a crime they did not commit serves as a sharp reminder of the work that needs to be done to improve the equity and fairness of our criminal justice system.

“As chair of the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons, I battled for their commutations and many others, and as your U.S. Senator, I will continue to fight for second chances for those who deserve them. We should be a culture that values salvation rather than seeking outvengeance.

However, Oz, the Trump-backed Republican contender for Pennsylvania’s Senate in 2022, didn’t believe the Hortons were guilty and instead used it as a talking point to criticize Democrats’ lax anti-crime policies, which have increased violence in American cities.

A Dr. Oz spokesman remarked in September, barely two months before the election, “If John Fetterman cared about Pennsylvania’s crime issue, he’d show it by dismissing the convicted killers he hires on his campaign.”

Following the Supreme Court decision that reversed Roe v. Wade in June, Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey wants to focus greater emphasis on the abortion debate during the opening remarks of the State of the Union.

Markey is sending Kate Dineen, who had to cross state borders to have an abortion in Maryland because new Massachusetts rules made it impossible for her to end her pregnancy there.

When Dineen’s kid had a stroke while still in her womb, she was 33 weeks pregnant. She was informed that he had a 50% risk of dying before delivery and that he may pass away soon after birth.

She decided to have the abortion, but she had to go out of the state since it was so late in the pregnancy.

After the Supreme Court declared Roe v. Wade unconstitutional and returned control of abortion regulation to the states, Democrats are outraged that states are now enacting legislation that limit access to abortion services for women.

Kate Dineen boldly described her experience attempting to have an abortion in Massachusetts, detailing the pain and uncertainty she went through. These obstacles to caring shouldn’t exist for anybody. Markey tweeted, “I am honored that Kate will be accompanying me for the State of the Union this year.