When Donald Trump enters the House Chamber Tuesday night, it will be the first time since he was elected president that he will be outnumbered by Democrats. How he handles the moment could define the rest of his term.
"Contrary to what Sarah Huckabee Sanders says, allegations of fraud during Donald Trump's inauguration may be the president's problem," writes Miller Center Senior Fellow Chris Lu in USA Today.
In 1998, President Clinton's State of the Union simply ignored the Monica Lewinsky scandal swirling around his presidency, says Russell Riley with the Miller Center at the University of Virginia. "By dint of his speaking skills and his personality, he was able to go in and change the tone of the debate. There were a lot of people within the Clinton White House that felt that that saved his presidency."
“As far as I know, it’s never been tried in the White House,” said Russell Riley, the co-chair of the Presidential Oral History Program at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. “I’ve never heard if it. I’ve done oral histories back to the Jimmy Carter presidency.”
"I think it's smart for him to hang back here," said Marc Short, former White House director of legislative affairs. "I do think he should still be traveling to vulnerable districts to put pressure on (Democrats) politically. But I think it's fine for him not to be at the center of the negotiations."
