NBC, CNN: Secret Service, DHS Reject Nancy Pelosi’s ‘Security’ Excuse for Canceling State of the Union

Nancy Pelosi takes the oath (Win McNamee / Getty)
Win McNamee / Getty

Multiple reports indicate that the U.S. Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security both reject Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s stated reason for asking the President of the United States to postpone the State of the Union address.

On Wednesday, Pelosi wrote to the president to rescind her Jan. 3 invitation for him to address Congress on January 29, in keeping with tradition.

Pelosi blamed a lack of available security due to the ongoing partial government shutdown: “This requires hundreds of people working on the logistics and security of it. Most of those people are either furloughed or victims of the shutdown. The president’s shutdown. But that isn’t the point. The point is security. … [It’s] a security decision which is completely out of my hands.”

But both NBC and CNN — hardly pro-Trump outlets — have poured cold water on Pelosi’s explanation.

Update: Fox News is also skeptical:

At the time Pelosi issued her original invitation to the president, the shutdown was already 13 days old, having begun on Dec. 22.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

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