5 Democrats to boycott State of the Union

WASHINGTON — Rep. Joseph Kennedy III, D-Mass., the only member of the famous political family’s third generation dabbling in elected politics, will deliver the Democratic Party’s formal response to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address next week.

Top Democratic congressional leaders announced late Thursday that Kennedy, the grandson of Robert Kennedy and great-nephew of former Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., will deliver the party’s response after Trump’s prime time address to a joint session of Congress. The party has also asked Virginia state Del. Elizabeth Guzman, the first Hispanic woman elected to the Virginia House of Delegates, to deliver the party’s formal response in Spanish.

The announcement came as at least five House Democrats say they plan to boycott Trump’s address Tuesday. Other lawmakers are planning to bring guests as diverse as science advocate Bill Nye, Miss America Cara Mund, young undocumented immigrants and Ricky Taylor, a Trump supporter known on Twitter as “Deplorable Vet.”

Signaling heightened tensions following Trump’s “shithole” comments about Haiti and African nations, Reps. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., John Lewis, D-Ga., Maxine Waters, D-Calif., and Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., have announced they will not attend the speech.

Jayapal said in a video posted to social media that the group will hold its own meeting Tuesday night to discuss “these racist policies that are being put out of the White House.”

Nye will attend as a guest of Rep. Jim Bridenstine, R-Okla., whose nomination for head of NASA has languished for months in the Senate. At his confirmation hearing, Bridenstine was pressed on his lack of scientific background. The Oklahoma congressman would be the first elected official to lead NASA, if confirmed.

Several House Democrats plan to bring guests affected by the immigration debate, including at least three who have invited young undocumented immigrants known as “dreamers,” who received legal protection under the now-canceled Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Two invited women with a family member who was deported by the Trump administration.