WASHINGTON — One word was noticeably missing from President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday: guns.
In a sign that the sun has set on Obama’s gun control agenda, the president’s prepared remarks contained no mention of the issue. Two years after the shooting massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, the absence of guns from Obama’s speech marked a departure from previous years, in which the president urged Congress to pass legislation aimed at reducing gun violence in America.
Obama made a thinly veiled reference to mass shootings while discussing national tragedies that have brought Americans together.
“I’ve mourned with grieving families in Tucson and Newtown; in Boston, West, Texas, and West Virginia,” he said.
Perhaps the most memorable moment of Obama’s 2013 State of the Union address was his impassioned plea to lawmakers to at least hold a vote for the sake of the children at Sandy Hook and other victims of gun violence, such as former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.), who was shot in the head at a 2011 constituent meeting in Tucson. Obama’s remarks on guns were significantly shorter last year, following a failed Senate vote to expand background checks. Nonetheless, the president pledged in that speech to take steps to curtail gun violence “with or without Congress.”
Obama has continued to use other forums to push for a change in how America perceives the issue of gun control, while chastising lawmakers for bowing to the National Rifle Association and other special interest groups. He also took limited executive action last year to strengthen the federal background checks system. But his failure to even mention the word “guns” in his most high-profile speech of the year is an acknowledgement that gun control is currently dead at the federal level, particularly under a GOP-controlled Congress.
A December report found that nearly 100 school shootings have occurred since Sandy Hook, resulting in at least 45 deaths and 78 non-fatal gunshot injuries. The anti-gun violence coalition has refused to back down from its efforts to take on the gun lobby, but given the reluctance among congressional lawmakers to revisit stricter gun laws, gun control groups have shifted their focus. Advocates are increasingly pursuing progress outside of Washington, following some state-level victories on instituting background checks and preventing domestic abusers from purchasing firearms.
This story has been updated.
Follow more of HuffPost’s State of the Union coverage below:
live blog Oldest Newest Share + Today 10:09 PM ESTObama Wants ISIS War Authorization But Won't Say If He'll Send Language To Congress HuffPost’s Jen Bendery reports:
President Barack Obama used his State of the Union address on Tuesday night to urge Congress to pass legislation authorizing the ongoing war against Islamic State militants.
But the president gave no signs that he would start that process by sending Congress draft language for an Authorization for the Use of Military Force — something lawmakers have been waiting for him to do for months. To the contrary, White House officials signaled earlier in the day that Obama might not send language at all.
Read the full story here.
“I have no more campaigns to run. I know, because I won both of them,” Obama said.
Obama received a standing ovation when he spoke about reforming the nation’s criminal justice system.
“We may have different takes on the events of Ferguson and New York. But surely we can understand a father who fears his son can’t walk home without being harassed. Surely we can understand the wife who won’t rest until the police officer she married walks through the front door at the end of his shift,” Obama said. “Surely we can agree it’s a good thing that for the first time in 40 years, the crime rate and the incarceration rate have come down together, and use that as a starting point for Democrats and Republicans, community leaders and law enforcement, to reform America’s criminal justice system so that it protects and serves us all.”
Read more here.
President Barack Obama doesn’t often speak about labor unions or the role of collective bargaining in the U.S. economy — that is, unless he’s speaking to a union crowd somewhere on the campaign trail. But the president offered a rare hat-tip to organized labor during his State of the Union speech Tuesday.
“We still need laws that strengthen rather than weaken unions, and give American workers a voice,” he said.
The ‘weaken’ line was likely a reference to the anti-union laws that have sprouted up in Wisconsin, Michigan and other states where Republicans have sought to roll back collective bargaining rights or shrink labor’s footprint in recent years. But it could also be an acknowledgment of the anti-union legislation expected to be taken up by the new GOP Congress.
— Dave Jamieson
Boehner does not clap for marriage equality.
— Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) January 21, 2015
“I’ve served in Congress with many of you. I know many of you well,” Obama said. “There are a lot of good people here, on both sides of the aisle. And many of you have told me that this isn’t what you signed up for — arguing past each other on cable shows, the constant fundraising, always looking over your shoulder at how the base will react to every decision. Imagine if we broke out of these tired old patterns. Imagine if we did something different.”
And here was that Maxine Waters Keystone reaction pic.twitter.com/fVJkLyOmjS
— Katherine Miller (@katherinemiller) January 21, 2015
–
Republican businesswoman Carly Fiorina blasted President Barack Obama on Tuesday hours before the State of the Union address, disputing the notion that policies enacted during Obama’s six years in office have contributed to an accelerating economic recovery.
“He will apparently declare victory on the economy tonight, but of course, whatever life there is in the economy is not due to his policies, it’s in spite of his policies,” Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett Packard and potential 2016 presidential candidate, said in an interview with Newsmax.
Obama is expected to acknowledge positive economic indicators — including a steadily declining unemployment rate, GDP growth and new highs on Wall Street — when he addresses the nation Tuesday evening. Fiorina’s comments about Obama’s legacy echo those of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who suggested earlier this month that the good news might have something to do with the election of a Republican Congress.
Though considered a long shot for the presidency, Fiorina said she is “seriously considering” throwing her hat into the ring.
— Igor Bobic
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) took to the floor of the House of Representatives on Tuesday, where she offered some clues about President Barack Obama’s annual State of the Union address.
“From what I hear about what he will present, it will reflect what we have seen across the country in terms of what he said last year, reflected across the country: ‘When Women Succeed, America Succeeds,'” she said. “It is about college affordability, about child care, about sick leave, all the kinds of issues that enable families –- not just women -– families to succeed.”
Pelosi invoked the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., a day following the federal holiday in his honor, and signaled that the president would also discuss proposals aimed at providing additional assistance to the middle class.
“So what we hear tonight I know will be in furtherance of increasing that paycheck, starting from the middle, starting from benefits –- when I say benefits, initiatives that benefit the middle class and those who aspire to it –- all of it a reflection of the American people’s thinking, all of it about engagement for what the Reverend Martin Luther King talked about, all of it, hopefully, we will be able to do in a bipartisan way,” she added.
— Igor Bobic
A number of House lawmakers plan to hold up yellow pencils during the State of the Union address tonight in symbolic tribute to the victims of the terrorist attack at the satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo.
The tribute is being spearheaded by Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.), whose office confirmed on Tuesday that President Barack Obama would reference the victims of the attack during his address.
“In the face of the terrorist attack in France, the pencil has become the international symbol in support of free speech,” the press release from Moore’s office read. “Rather than divide and intimidate us, these brazen and barbaric attacks have united the international community and prompted a global response in defense of the freedom of expression. The Congresswoman believes that this is unique opportunity to join our global partners in showing our collective support and solidarity.”
An official with Moore’s office told The Huffington Post that as of 2:45 p.m. on Tuesday, at least seven other lawmakers have agreed to raise yellow pencils in solidarity. The official said that the White House has started making calls to the Hill to see who else plans to participate in the tribute, and expects that by the end of the day, multiple members of the Congressional Black Caucus and Congressional Progressive Caucus will have joined in.
Moore, for her part, will participate from a wheelchair. The congresswoman took a fall while home during the holidays and is still recovering from broken bones in both her feet and her elbow.
— Sam Stein
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) likened President Barack Obama’s proposal for new bank fees to the memorable “Saturday Night Live” sketch in which a music producer played by Christopher Walken repeatedly calls for “more cowbell.”
According to Politico, Cruz made the comparison on Tuesday when asked if he liked any aspect of Obama’s proposal.
“To every problem his solution was, ‘more cowbell, more cowbell,” Cruz said. “This president, to every problem his solution is ‘more taxes, more government.’”
Read more at Politico.
The Huffington Post reports:
Many are expected to tune into President Obama’s State of the Union Address Tuesday night but few will have the opportunity to hear his remarks in person — and among them will be one of the nation’s oldest living civil rights leaders.
103-year-old Amelia Boynton was invited to attend this year’s annual address by U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Al.), who represents Alabama’s 7th Congressional District.
Boynton is largely known for her efforts during the peak of the voting rights movement in the 1960s. She made headlines in newspapers across the nation after she was brutally beaten by policemen during a march over the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama in 1965. The march was later identified as “Bloody Sunday” after Boynton and sixteen of the 600 protesters who demonstrated that day were beaten unconscious and sent to the hospital.
Read more here.