State of the Union - live: Women wear white in powerful message as Trump vows to ban late-term abortion
Follow the latest updates as Mr Trump prepares to deliver his second State of the Union address to a divided Congress
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump is delivering the second State of the Union address of his presidency, where he has the opportunity to lay out his vision for the last two years of his first term in office and beyond.
With a damaging and politically contentious 35-day government shutdown having just ended in Washington, the president stands before a joint session in the House chamber — where is expected to make sweeping calls for unity in a time of dramatic division and to promote lofty efforts like the eradication of HIV by 2030.
But, Mr Trump’s audience in the House chamber will be noticeably different from his address last year. Flanked behind him and to his left will sit Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who proved to be a formidable political foil to Mr Trump during those shutdown negotiations last month after her party took control of the lower chamber during the 2018 midterm elections.
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White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders just met with reporters for a quick bout of questions.
"The president is going to lay out what we've accomplished," she said, noting that he plans on highlighting bipartisan accomplishments like the criminal justice reform package that was passed late last year.
Ms Sanders also said he also will provide a "visionary look forward".
She stoppd sort of saying that Mr Trump will declare a state of emergency during the State of the Union in order to build a US-Mexico border wall that he forced a government shutdown over late last year and earlier this year.
"We're not going to get ahead of the process," Ms Sanders said of the potential for him to declare a state of emergency.
Here's the president's response to Mr Schumer's pre-emptive criticism of his State of the Union.
During a lunch with television anchors earlier in the day to preview his State of the Union, Donald Trump reportedly lashed out at Democrats and claimed that much of what he does is on purpose even when journalists think he is tripping up.
“I hope it’s Biden,” Mr Trump said during the meeting, referring to a potential run for president by former Vice President Joe Biden in 2020, according to the New York Times. “Biden was never very smart. He was a terrible student. His gaffes are unbelievable. When I say something that you might think is a gaffe, it’s on purpose; it’s not a gaffe. When Biden says something dumb, it’s because he’s dumb".
In addition to going after Mr Biden, he also criticised Virginia Governor Ralph Northam for his handling of a press conference amid an ongoing scandal sparked after photos surfaced showing his medical school yearbook page including a photo of a white man in black face and another in a Ku Klux Klan robe.
Mr Trump said Mr Northam was "choking like a dog" during the press conference.
He also reportedly called Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer a "nasty son of a bitch".
While many representatives have invited notable figures as their guests at tonight's State of the Union, at least one is keeping her seat empty for the second year in a row in order to honour the memory of the victims of the Las Vegas massacre in 2017 where 58 people were killed by a gunman at a country music festival.
Democrat Representative Dina Titus is keeping her seat open in memory of those who died in that shooting, according to the Las Vegas Sun.
The FBI just recently closed its investigation into the shooter's motives for the attack, after being unable to find a reason.
Freshman Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and her guest, Ana Maria Archila, have both arrived at the Capitol wearing white.
Ms Archila is the woman who confronted former Senator Jeff Flake about his decision to vote in favour of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh late last year.
Here's our earlier story on the choice:
Democratic presidential hopeful Kamala Harris, a senator from California, has called on Mr Trump to rise above politics during a Facebook Live ahead of the State of the Union.
“We need our leaders to speak the truth that we have an economy where the cost of healthcare, housing and education are going up. But paychecks aren’t growing fast enough to keep up” Ms Harris said.
“Let’s fight for an America where the economy works for working people, an America where healthcare and education are fundamental rights, not a privilege for the wealthy few,” she continued.
Ms Harris is among a handful of Democrats who have announced they are running for president, in a field that is expected to grow considerably. In addition to Ms Harris, other senators running for the Democratic nomination will also be in attendance this evening, including New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren.
Mr Trump has just left the White House on his way to the Capitol, where he will deliver his second State of the Union speech.
Excerpts released in advance of his speech show that the president is planning a speech that will focus on unity, according to the excerpts released.
"The agenda I will lay out this evening is not a Republican Agenda or a Democrat Agenda. It is the agenda of the American People," Mr Trump's prepared remarks read in part.
The remarks will come after a very divisive start of the year, which saw a continuation of the US government shutdown that wound up being the longest shutdown in US history.
"Together, we can break decades of political stalemate. We can bridge old divisions, heal old wounds, build new coalitions, forge new solutions, and unlock the extraordinary promise of America’s future," Mr Trump's remarks read. " The decision is ours to make".
While Mr Trump makes his way to the Capitol in his motorcade, footage from inside the House chamber shows an expanse of women wearing all white in a nod to the women's suffrage movement in the United States.
Among those women wearing white are House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, and even Mr Trump's adult daughter, Tiffany Trump.
The Supreme Court justices have now arrived in the Capitol, to applause.
Among them is Justice Brett Kavanaugh, whose was confirmed to the bench last year in spite of one of the most contentious confirmation processes in Supreme Court history.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who recently underwent emergency surgery to remove a tumor in her lungs, is not in attendance.
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