WASHINGTON — House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has invited President Trump to address a joint session of Congress on Feb. 28 and lay out his “ambitious agenda.”
“This will be an opportunity for the people and their representatives to hear directly from our new president about his vision and our shared agenda,” Ryan told reporters outside of a closed caucus meeting on Capitol Hill today.
“With this new unified Republican government, we have a unique opportunity to deliver results for the country. This address will give the people and their representatives the chance to hear directly from you about your agenda to tackle the critical challenges we face at home and abroad,” says the letter Ryan sent to Trump. “We look forward to welcoming you to the Capitol on behalf of the people we serve.”
Trump hosted a congressional leadership reception Monday with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas), Ryan, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.). Afterward, he met one-on-one with Ryan.
“I believe yesterday was the right start where the president invited the House and Senate Republicans and the Democrats together,” McCarthy told reporters today. “It was a start to build the relationship. We talked about the challenges, we talked about the failing system of Obamacare. People talked about, do you just allow the system to fail? No, because the American people, you’ve got to give them relief. You have to give them a rescue and something much better. You have to have growth for tax reform, and we also talked about infrastructure.”
Senate Dems planned to release their own infrastructure package today.
Trump also brought up his beef with inauguration crowd-size estimates in the meeting with congressional leaders, Hoyer told CNN. “He didn’t change his point of view on the crowd size. It was from his perspective a very large crowd … it was clear this was still on his mind.”
Trump tweeted in November, “In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.” He told lawmakers at the reception that 3 million to 5 million people voted illegally.
“I’ve seen no evidence to that effect,” Ryan told reporters today. “I’ve made that very, very clear.”
“…Look, I’m a policy guy, I’m gonna sit here and focus on policy and I’m not gonna get into the puts and the takes and all of these things.”
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