Central New York's representatives in Congress wanted to hear a desire for bipartisanship in President Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday night. What they got was a president who spoke of collaboration on some issues, but emphasized other areas of division. WAER spoke with both Republican John Katko and Democrat Anthony Brindisi to get their reactions and to see what it means for Congress going forward.
It was Brindisi’s first State of the Union address in Washington.
Brindisi was sworn into office just a month ago and he split a bit from his more critical party colleagues when assessing the speech delivered by the President. Brindisi said he remains open to Trump’s calls to work together in what he called a good speech.
"When he says he wants to work together, I want to believe him and I am ready, willing and able to do so. Words are one thing, but we have to back them up with action. I'm ready to compromise. I'm ready to work on some of these big issues. I showed last night through sitting on the floor with my Republican colleague Congressman John Katko."
The Democrat from New York's 22nd District did note that the president mentioned paid family leave, and lowering drug costs, while also praising women in the workforce, but Brindisi notes pay equity for women could be improved. The largest amount of time the president spent on any single issue in the speech was on border security. Again, Brindisi does not blanketly oppose GOP ideas. In fact, he’s not against funding for barriers in areas where they make sense.
"However, I believe that is not the only piece of the puzzle when it comes to border security. We have to invest more in technology. We have many trucks that come across the southern border that are not getting inspected by x-ray machines. We have issues at all of our ports. We have drugs that are coming in through boats. So, we need to beef up our ports and our Coast Guard."
The president also spoke a great deal about foreign affairs. And while Brindisi wants to see more dialogue with North Korea, he’s not as anxious for Trump to decide on troop pullouts from conflicts in Syria and Afghanistan.
"I want the president, and I hope he listens to some of our folks in the intelligence and national security community who are offering advice on how we handle Syria, how we handle Iran and other countries that are a threat. And hopefully we can come to some consensus."
Finally, Brindisi is holding out hope that another government shutdown can be avoided if a compromise can be reached on border security and more moderate voices chime in on that and other key issues.
Meanwhile, Republican John Katko felt the president tried hard to strike a conciliatory, bipartisan tone.
Katko said he was glad to hear the president dispense with his typical hardline rhetoric and discuss areas where he could reach some bipartisan agreement. Katko believes that resonated with a larger audience and not just his core supporters, even if, in the hours prior to the speech, Trump used Twitter to target and insult Democrats.
"I've always been a strong advocate of putting him in permanent Twitter timeout, but I don't think that's going to happen. But at the same token, I'm hoping that he learns that he got a very positive response overall and the polling indicated that Democrats, Republicans and Independents alike all tended to really like the tone he struck. So maybe that will be instructive for him."
The president is going to need Democrats to come to his side if he ever hopes to make any headway on border security, which includes his controversial wall. Katko has seen the leaky border firsthand as a federal prosecutor in El Paso, and agrees something has to be done. He just hopes Democrats see their window to negotiate.
"Why not try and strike a great deal? Why not try and make the major ask? Whatever your biggest issue is, why not go to the president and say 'if you do this for us we'll support you.' It would be the ultimate opportunity to make a deal and if they don't do it they've really missed out on a golden opportunityto make a lot of progress."
In the end, Katko is worried Democrats will squander their opportunity. Beyond the southern border, Katko feels Trump is on the right track with his ongoing efforts to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jung Un. He notes North Korea hasn’t conducted any missile or nuclear tests in the last 15 months, and he credits Trump.
"It is either ignore the enemy at your peril, or you can engage with them and try and get them to stop and let them know that if they don't things are going to be much worse for them and I think he's doing that. Whether it ultimately works or not, I don't know. But listen, if that ultimately gets peace in the Korean peninsula and denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, that's a very good thing."
Katko said there also appears to be progress with defeating ISIS. He also praised Trump recognizing the power of women in Congress and the nation, and feels they will play a big role in paid family leave legislation mentioned by the president in his address.