Democrats Are Bringing Epstein Survivors And ICE Victims To Trump’s State Of The Union. Guess Who Republicans Are Bringing?

Many Democrats attending Tuesday night’s State of the Union address are bringing victims of Jeffrey Epstein as guests, or people wrongfully detained and attacked by ICE agents ― if they’re going at all.

Who are Republicans bringing? Buckle up.

Shirley is a far-right conservative influencer whose viral YouTube video last year led to spurious claims of rampant fraud among Somali-born child care providers in Minnesota.

State investigators who looked into the claims found no evidence of large-scale fraud, yet Republicans nevertheless seized upon the false narrative as a pretense to cut off federal social services funding for a handful of blue states, ultimately targeting $10 billion worth of federal grants to California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York.

Shirley will nevertheless be the guest of Rep. Pete Stauber (R-Minn.) who praised his work as an “investigative journalist who uncovered massive fraud.”

Reps. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.), Dave Taylor (R-Ohio), Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), and Brad Finstad (R-Minn.) are all bringing law enforcement officers.

The U.S. men’s hockey team will attend as guests of President Donald Trump after the squad won gold last week at the Winter Olympics for the first time in 46 years.

Notably, the U.S. women’s squad, which also won gold, will not attend after Trump was caught complaining about having to invite them during his congratulatory call with the men’s squad.

“And we have to — I must tell you — we’re going to have to bring the women’s team,” said Trump. “[If I don’t] do that, I do believe I probably would be impeached, OK?”

A spokesperson for USA Hockey, which oversees both teams, said the women couldn’t attend Tuesday’s speech because of “timing and previously scheduled academic and professional commitments.”

Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) has invited Claire Lai, the daughter of Hong Kong democracy advocate and media mogul Jimmy Lai, who is serving a 20-year sentence in China for his high-profile role in pro-democracy protests there in 2019.

The 78-year-old was arrested and convicted under a dubious and draconian Beijing-imposed national security law.

Also attending: Ziba Murat, the daughter of Dr. Gulshan Abbas, a Uyghur doctor who was arrested in 2018 after her sister spoke out about China’s mass detention of Uyghur Muslims. Murat will attend as a guest of House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.).

Also on Rep. Johnson’s invite list: Trott Hunt, the founder of Hunt, Guillot & Associates, an oil and gas conglomerate with offices across the country, including Johnson’s hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana.