A number of Democrats have announced that they are boycotting President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address.
The group includes Reps. John Lewis, D-Ga., Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., Maxine Waters, D-Calif., and Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash.
Jayapal said in a video on Twitter that she and the other boycotters would host their own address.
"I will be joining other members of Congress in not going to the State of the Union, and we will have our own state of our union, to talk about our opposition to these racist policies that are being put out of the White House, and to make sure that we put forward our own progressive vision of what our America looks like as we take it back," Jayapal said in her video.
Lewis made the decision to skip the address after Trump reportedly made controversial remarks during an Oval Office meeting, calling Haiti and other African nations "s***hole countries."
"I cannot in all good conscience be in a room with what he has said about so many Americans. I just can’t do it," Lewis said on MSNBC, The Hill reported.
In his Wednesday announcement that he would boycott, Oregon Rep. Blumenauer posted a video in which he slammed Trump. "I’m not going to waste my time" attending the speech, the congressman said in his video.
Other Democrats, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., have said they would attend, but wear black in support of the sexual harassment victims’ movement, ABC News reported.
The president has denied claims that he is racist. "I am the least racist person you have ever interviewed," he said to reporters Sunday, Politico reported.
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