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wong. trump set to address members of congress and the nation tomorrow night. tuesday night from capitol hill. then joint address is not officially state of the union. what are we expecting? guest: this is going to be a big speech by president trump. it is his first major address to the united states congress since taking office. especially since implementing all of these doge cuts that has been so controversial and widespread across the country. we have seen the democrats protest these cuts at the federal agencies. we have seen the reaction from townhalls around the country. protesting republicans who have been supportive of elon musk and this doge department. we will hear directly from the president i think it will be a victory lap of sorts looking back at president trump's first month in office saying, look, i campaigned on these promises and

i have carried out and fulfilled a lot of these promises. the scale back the size and scope of government to go after spending. we didn't really know that he was going to do these mass firings. we're going to hear from the president about how he thinks these mass firings have gone so far. host: how much do you think that friday night's blow up in the oval office is changing the speech right now? how much he's going to focus now on ukraine and peace and minerals deal? what are your thoughts? guest: it will be a big major part of this address because it is in the news. it is the biggest story at the moment. i think everyone at this point several days out has now seen the blowup in the oval office between zelenskyy, president trump and vice president j.d. vance. this is an important deal that in the eyes of the president. this mineral deal. they thinks that this is the

path to peace between ukraine and russia. clearly, zelenskyy wanted more. he wanted security assurances from the united states which the president trump was unwilling to give him in that moment. they walked away from the deal. zelenskyy returned to europe and ukraine where he did -- he was received well in the european community and did receive some additional support financial support as well as verbal support from european leaders there. to go back to my original point, this is important deal for trump to get done. he sees himself as a deal maker. a lot is riding on this mineral rights deal. i think we will expect to hear from the president. host: it's not officially state of the union address. all that pageantry will be there. mr. speaker and the president of the united states and the guests we're expecting president trump to have guests and members of congress always have their

own guest to try to make their points. what do you know about any of those things the guests and the audience who might be referenced or guests that members of congress bringing? guest: we know chuck schumer democratic leader to say look, invite guests who can demonstrating about impacted by some of president trump's policies. who have been hurt by some of president trump's policies. people like v.a. workers who are supporting veterans and veterans with disabilities. usda workers, noaa workers, federal government workers who to the work of the country that is oftentimes unseen as well as people like who are impacted by potential medicaid cuts that we have heard so much about from democrats as the republicans try to advance their agenda

including tax cuts and figuring out how to pay for that agenda. what democrats say will come out of the pockets of people who are recipients of medicaid. that have been disputed by republicans. we'll see what happens on that front. the other thing i would also mention is that we're kind of see a lot of the cabinet members very likely, key members of trump's cabinet who just had their bruising confirmation hearings before the united states senate. you'll see the senators sitting there with some of the cabinet members who recently had rough goings. but so far everyone has made it through and gotten through and confirmed president trump's cabinet. that will be an interesting dynamic. host: 9:00 p.m. eastern is when this gets under way. that pageantry starts half hour.

members start arriving hours beforehand. one thing afterwards is always the response to the president speech this year it's senator elissa slotkin of michigan to deliver the response of the address. what do viewers need to know about her? guest: she has served in the house of representatives for several years. she's now a freshman democratic senator from michigan. what's important to know about slotkin is that she outperformed trump in the 2024 election in the state of michigan. trump won michigan. she as the democrat won the senate race in that state. outperformed by quite a bit. host: many people marked donald trump for president marked her. guest: she's a former cia

analyst. she has a history with trump. she was instrumental. she was one of the hand full of national security democrats in the house who had been resistent for the first trump impeachment. at one point, they all came together and wrote a op ed in the "washington post." these are the national security democrats. elissa slotkin was one of them. saying that we believe it's in the national interest to pursue impeachment against donald trump. remember, this was the issue pertaining to ukraine and russia. this was the famous phone call between president trump and zelenskyy where there were allegations that president trump was withholding ukraine funding. it's kind of a full-circle moment now that we're dealing with zelenskyy and ukraine. that's sort of elissa slotkin's

background. she's an interesting choice. host: what make for a good response? how high or low is the bar here? guest: that's a funny question. there's an ongoing joke on capitol hill that deliver -- delivering the response to the state of the union it's the worse possible job. it's potential to flub it. people remember with those responses, marco rubio's infamous grabbing the glass of water off camera and then coming back on camera is one of more memorable ones. of course, things turned out for marco rubio. he's now secretary of state. oftentimes these are not memorable speeches unless you have a major flub like the marco rubio incident. host: the week ahead in congress is our topic. that joint address. a major component of the week ahead here on capitol hill. all eyes on washington on

tuesday night. scott wong with us for this conversation. phone number is 202-748-8000 for democrats, republicans 202-748-8001, independents 202-748-8002. as folks are calling in, give us an update on where we are on funding the government past march 14th. host: we saw speaker of the house mike johnson appear on our network, meet the press and nbc over the weekend. he said that republicans want to push forward on a full-year cr push forward on a full-year cr >> this is available to watch on the website c-span.org and leave it here and thank you live to the capitol where the house is gaveling back in after a short recess and expect more speeches from members. live coverage on c-span.