Orange, Durham and Chatham County’s U.S. Rep. Valerie Foushee did not attend the joint congressional address by President Donald Trump Tuesday evening, calling it a boycott of the speech and citing both the president’s disinformation and extreme measures to reshape the federal government.
The District 4 and Democratic congresswoman shared a video on her social media accounts before the speech, saying she would intentionally not attend it in part out of concern she would not be able to maintain decorum during Trump’s comments and did not want to give him an audience when she knew “truth is not going to be what we hear.”
“I have heard from tens of thousands of my constituents, through my town hall, messages to my office and in-person, and I hear your messages loud and clear,” she said in the video.
In both the video and a statement released after Trump’s address, Foushee criticized the presidential administration’s first weeks as not only creating confusion but causing harm to her district and others — calling many of the actions “an insult and a betrayal to the American people.”
“Parents need lower everyday costs, yet Trump enacted tariffs that will raise grocery, gas, and household prices,” read Foushee’s written statement. “Americans need affordable health care and retirement benefits, yet Trump is plotting to slash Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security to pay for trillions in tax cuts for his billionaire friends. Our country needs foreign policy decisions that aren’t being made by our foreign adversaries, yet Trump is choosing to abandon our democratic allies to seek favor with Vladimir Putin.
“Americans across the country are already experiencing the harmful and disastrous consequences of the Trump Administration’s actions first-hand,” the congresswoman’s statement continued. “Countless dedicated civil servants are being senselessly fired from their federal jobs, invaluable federal agencies are being dissolved, all while Trump and House Republicans are attempting to pass an extreme budget that will balloon our deficit, drive up inflation, and raise everyday costs for healthcare, groceries, housing, utilities, and more. Trump and Republicans are making it clear that they have no plan to address any of these real concerns the American people have, and instead, they are focused on passing their extreme agenda that leaves working families behind.”
Foushee, who is in her second term after being re-elected to NC District 04 in the fall, was just one of several Democratic lawmakers in Congress who boycotted Trump’s address on Tuesday. Many Democrats in attendance attempted to protest Trump’s comments by choosing not to applaud, trying to live fact-check the president, or holding up signs decrying the work of his administration and advisor Elon Musk to cut federal programs. Some walked out the chamber during the speech.
Trump did make false statements during the address, including his margin of victory in November’s election against Democratic nominee and then-Vice President Kamala Harris, the review of government spending being conducted by Musk’s Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE), and his strict deportation and immigration efforts. The full speech to members of the U.S. House and Senate can be watched here.
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Local U.S. Rep. Valerie Foushee Boycotts Trump’s Congressional Address, Citing President’s Lies Chapelboro.com.
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