Sen. Tom Carper (D-Delaware) is pushing back against President Trump’s State of the Union address.
Trump used most of the speech to tout a strong economy, low unemployment and increased wages, calling it a “blue collar boom.”
He credited his administration’s deregulation and tax cuts, saying the economy would not be as strong if the Obama administration’s policies would have been left in place.
Carper sees it differently.
“He fails to mention that the administration before him, which included Barack Obama and Joe Biden, began their eight-year term facing the worst economic recession since the Great Depression and pulled us out in that over eight-year period of time and handed over an eight-year economic recovery to a new president, Donald Trump,” Carper said following the speech.
Carper also noted Trump’s failure to acknowledge his role as lead Democratic sponsor on a bipartisan infrastructure bill.
Trump called for Congress to pass the bill, calling it Republican Sen. John Barasso’s (R-Wyoming) bill and leaving Carper’s name out.
“I wrote at least as much of it as John, maybe more, and I think a lot of my colleagues know that. I think John Barosso knows that too," said Carper.
Carper has attended State of the Union speeches dating back to the Reagan administration. He says Trump’s speech did not receive the kind of bipartisan applause characteristic during past presidents’ addresses to Congress.
Carper says Trump failed to deliver a unifying message.
“I think he may have missed an opportunity to do that," said Carper. "We’ve been through a brutal several weeks, several months, with impeachment, with the impeachment trial the last couple weeks in the Senate and I think that would’ve been welcomed by all sides, but we didn’t get it.”
Carper and the rest of the Senate vote Wednesday on whether to remove President Trump as his impeachment trial concludes. The President is expected to be acquitted by the majority Republican Senate.