Rep. Earl Blumenauer Refuses to Attend President Trump’s State of the Union Address

"Hearing from Oregonians," the congressman says, "is a more productive use of my time.”

U.S. Rep Earl Blumenauer at a rally to save Obamacare on Jan. 15, 2017. (Joe Riedl)
By Katie Shepherd

Rep. Earl Blumenauer has decided that the upcoming State of the Union address will be a waste of his time. So he isn't going to show up.

The Jan. 30 address will be President Donald Trump's first address to the full Congress since his joint address last February.

Blumenauer says he will be in Oregon.

"Rather than listening to yet another destructive and divisive speech by Trump," Blumenauer said in a statement, "I will be working here at home listening to Oregonians about what they think about the State of the Union."

The congressman has a habit of skipping Trump's big days. He also left Washington, D.C. during the inauguration to meet with his constituents. Blumenauer did attend Trump's joint address last winter, and responded with a one-word statement: "Resist."

Related: 40 copies of the Trump tell-all book flew off the Powell's shelves in five minutes.

Blumenauer has been a consistent voice of opposition to Trump's policies, including the administration's recent decision to revoke a guidance that protected state-level marijuana regulations from federal interference. He also spoke out against the Republican tax bill, criticized Trump's executive order to shrink public lands in the West, and rebuked the US Department of Justice for threatening to cut funds because of Oregon's sanctuary status.

"Hearing from Oregonians and working together to protect our values and advance policies that actually strengthen our communities is a more productive use of my time," he says.

He hasn't decided where specifically he'll spend the evening hearing from Oregonians.

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