Sen. Murray to skip Trump speech, as other lawmakers bring special guests
Mar 4, 2025, 8:04 AM | Updated: 10:09 am
Sen. Murray to skip Trump speech, as other lawmakers bring special guests(Photo by Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(Photo by Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)
U.S. Senator Patty Murray, D-Washington, will not attend President Donald Trump’s joint Congressional address, citing significant concerns over the administration’s actions.
“I will not be attending President Trump’s address to Congress,” Murray stated in a press release. “The state of the union is that the President is spitting in the face of the law and he is letting an unelected billionaire fire cancer researchers and wreck federal agencies like the Social Security Administration at will.”
Meanwhile, two Washington lawmakers are making their own statements by inviting special guests to the speech.
Who are other lawmakers inviting?
Rep. Michael Baumgartner, R-Spokane, decided to invite an Eastern Washington teacher nominated by her students. Stacey Nash, a career and technical education teacher at Wilbur-Creston High School in Wilbur, was selected by Baumgartner’s office from 21 candidates, after local students submitted essays for consideration, Baumgartner shared in an interview.
“The goal here is to give a special experience to teachers and a unique opportunity in a way that excites an interest in civics and public service for students,” the congressman told the Spokesman-Review. “The folks that got nominated were all fantastic.”
Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Washington, invited a retired doctor who says he used federal funding to create the Institute for Prostate Cancer Research at the University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. Paul Lange helped pioneer early prostate cancer detection. He argues that President Donald Trump’s plan to target federal funding could hurt medical research.
Murray is the only Washington lawmaker reportedly skipping Tuesday night’s address. Both KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM and KTTH Radio 770 AM will air the address live.
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Sen. Murray: ‘The state of the union might be great for corrupt billionaires’
Murray criticized the administration’s policies, highlighting the impact on various sectors.
“The state of the union might be great for corrupt billionaires like Elon Musk as Trump guts our foremost consumer protection agency, and even for dictators like Putin, who are cheering on the dismantling of USAID and the betrayal of our allies—but the rest of the country is in a state of emergency as Elon fires the experts responding to bird flu or managing our nuclear weapons stockpile, all while Republicans sprint to tear apart Medicaid and kick families off their health care to pass massive tax giveaways for billionaires,” she said.
Instead of attending the address, Murray plans to meet with constituents she says “have been harmed by this administration’s reckless firings and its illegal and ongoing funding freeze across government.”
“There are farms and small businesses across Washington state and America who are on the verge of collapse because Trump and Elon are illegally blocking federal dollars they are owed,” Murray said. “There are thousands of fired federal workers, many of them veterans, who have been carelessly laid off by Trump and Musk with no consideration for the services they provide and how that might harm millions of Americans, whether that’s VA patient safety or the timely disbursement of Social Security checks. I’ll be focused on sharing those stories from Washington state.”
Murray’s decision underscores her ongoing opposition to the Trump administration’s policies.
