A day before President Trump is slated to address the nation before a joint session of Congress (note: Not a State of the Union), Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi addressed reporters at the National Press Club to offer a prebuttal.
Minority leader Pelosi started first absent a late Chuck Schumer and offered a full throated defense of President Obama's first weeks in office: passage of the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, a quickly confirmed cabinet, and the controversial American Recovery and Reinvestment, or stimulus, bill. She then pivoted to a pointed, if not slightly canned, attack on President Trump and Republicans in Congress as "putting Wall Street first," "making America Sick Again" and "allowing Russia to undermine our democracy." Pelosi also critiqued efforts by the president via executive order and Congress's use of the Congressional Review Act to stop or repeal Obama-era regulations or initiatives.
This, Pelosi said was a "bait and switch" agenda, as she sought to paint Trump as candidate who said one thing while campaigning, but is doing another while in office. Talking points from the White House circulated among Senate Republicans seek to paint the opposite as true, with one bullet point reading: "One by one, President Trump has been checking off the promises he made to the American people. He’s doing what he said he was going to do."
Pelosi also took a swipe at Steve Bannon, suggesting Trump gave control of the NSC "to a white supremacist." She also insinuated the Russians had information that could be used to blackmail President Trump, asking: "what do the Russians have on Donald Trump?"
Schumer took the podium, bragging that after Democrats were "down in the dumps," they've had a banner time "standing up to President Trump" in his first weeks. "[Democrats] are steeled for the fight..." Schumer said, noting Democratic efforts to stall Trump's cabinet picks and defend the Affordable Care Act are "already paying dividends." He quipped that Republicans are in "disarray, on defense and pointing at each other like an Abbott and Costello show."
The delay in the Senate confirming Trump's nominees "exposed the cabinet for what it is... a 'swamp cabinet.'" Painting it as a goal achieved, Schumer said the lengthy confirmation processes will cause cabinet secretaries to "look over their shoulder after everything they do."
Opposite claims from the White House and GOP leaders in Congress about a repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act, Schumer defiantly claimed Obama's signature healthcare law "will not be repealed." With the news-out-of-2010 repeating itself, Schumer predicted the anger over Obamacare repeal might convince three Republican Senators to vote against any effort to repeal it.
In perhaps an attempt to troll the president, Schumer suggested that Trump and congressional Republicans haven't done much other than repeal regulations he deemed "an afterthought of the Obama administration" and that Trump has "not had much impact" as president. This despite recent remarks by newly elected DNC chair Tom Perez, who labeled nascent president as "the worst president in the history of the United States."
Asked whether the Democratic caucus could work with the president, Schumer gave a mixed response. On one hand, if Trump proposed a "standalone bill on carried interest, I'm not gonna oppose it because it has the name Trump on it." It's not very likely that congressional Republicans would push this tax increase measure alone, as budgetary rules in Congress usually result in tax increases being used as a means to pay for other spending initiatives. Schumer knows this, of course.
More candidly, Schumer said "it's hard to see what we could work with him on... because he's gone so hard right."