State of the Union guests to highlight divisiveness on foreign, domestic issues – JP

Democrats also hope to hammer Republicans on issues like abortion and gun control, especially in the wake of a series of mass shootings in recent months.

In a nod to the Supreme Court’s 2022 overturn of Roe v. Wade, abortion rights activist Kate Dineen, who had to travel 500 miles from Boston to Bethesda, Md., and pay out of pocket to receive an abortion after her son suffered a stroke in utero, will attend with Sen. Edward J. Markey.

“We are living in dangerous times, manufactured for partisan and misogynistic gain,” Markey said in a statement. “Extremist Republicans are trying to create a world in which women, LGBTQ+ Americans, young people, and communities of color have fewer rights today than the generation before them.”

Meanwhile, Reps. Joe Neguse and Jason Crow, both of Colorado, and Sen. Alex Padilla of California all invited guests with ties to recent mass shootings. Neguse will bring the wife of a man killed in a 2021 mass shooting in Boulder. Crow will be in attendance with Army veteran Richard M. Fierro, who charged and disarmed a shooter in Colorado Springs last year. Padilla invited Henry Lo, mayor of Monterey Park, where a shooting at a dance studio on Jan. 21 killed 11 people.

Santos returns to Ground Zero

New York Republican Rep. George Santos, who’s facing multiple investigations into lies about his background, announced in a floor speech Monday that he would bring Michael Weinstock, a former firefighter who did rescue work after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center.