Congressman Cleaver hopes President’s speech inspires unity

Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, who represents Missouri’s 5th Congressional District, has some advice for the President’s State of Union speech…be inspiring.

President Donald Trump will give his State of the Union address February 5 after Democrats agreed to negotiate and Trump ended the partial government shutdown. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, invited the President after initially declining to allow him to speak. She also scheduled a European and Middle East travel junket with her family and other Democrat members of Congress that included 89 family members. Trump cancelled the trip once he got word of it.

Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, appearing on Fox News, says the president should not use the speech to “launch attacks” and further divide the country.

“I think he ought to come in and deliver a speech on the state of the United States and then be aspirational in his speech, talk about what we stand for and where we are going to go,” says Cleaver. “I do think that the president and the Democrats should have something that people in the country are proud of. When the lights are off that night, everybody ought to feel pretty good. They may disagree, but they feel pretty good about being an American.”

Cleaver, who is a Methodist church minister, says some Congressional members are boycotting the address, but he is not. It is not known if Cleaver will applaud the president or stand as is common courtesy. During last year’s SOTU address, the vast majority of Democrats refused to applaud the president and those that did were stared down by Chuck Schumer and other party leaders until they stopped.

Cleaver was one of those that sat on his hands during most of the speech and has been at the center of several very partisan incidents involving the most radical members of Congress.