For anyone interested in how to watch the opposition responses to Donald Trump’s first State of the Union address tonight (Jan. 30), there will be at least five to choose from.
Trump marked his first year in office with divisive rhetoric and a controversial agenda, so perhaps unsurprisingly, there are more planned responses to State of the Union responses than ever before:
Along with the Democratic party’s official response to the speech, to be delivered by Massachusetts representative Joseph Kennedy III, Elizabeth Guzman, a state lawmaker in Virginia, will give the official Spanish-language response, vocal Trump critic Maxine Waters, a California congresswoman, will deliver a response on BET, Maryland politician Donna Edwards will respond on behalf the Working Families Party, and senator Bernie Sanders will offer his own take via social media.
Delivering the response to the State of the Union has been called the “worst job in politics,” but it can also be an opportunity to send a strong message and claim a place on the national stage.
Official response: Joseph Kennedy
Kennedy, a rising start in the Democratic party who is widely expected to run for Senate when a seat opens, will give the Democrats’ official response after Trump speaks.
“Congressman Kennedy is a relentless fighter for working Americans,” minority leader Nancy Pelosi said in a release. “While President Trump has consistently broken his promises to the middle class, Congressman Kennedy profoundly understands the challenges facing hard-working men and women across the country.”
Like the State of the Union, the official Democratic response will be broadcast on all the major US news networks, including ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, PBS, C-SPAN, Univision, Telemundo, CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News. You can also watch live online via Twitter, PBS, and C-SPAN.
Spanish-language response: Elizabeth Guzman
Elizabeth Guzman, the first Hispanic female immigrant elected to Virginia’s House of Delegates, will deliver the official Democratic Spanish-language response.
Guzman’s 8-10 minute speech will be original, not a translation of Kennedy’s version, and will focus on immigration-related issues and conclude by inviting Latinos to join the Democratic party. Her speech was written to resonate not only with native Spanish speakers, but also with children for whom Spanish is a second language.
Guzman recorded her speech Jan.28 in Washington DC. It will air tonight following the president’s address on Univision, Telemundo, and CNN en Espanol.
Maxine Waters
Waters will deliver her rebuttal to Trump’s State of the Union address on Angela Rye’s State of the Union on BET on Wednesday, Jan 31 at 10 pm.
Waters, who has repeatedly called for Trump’s impeachment, is one of several Democratic lawmakers who have said they will not attend Trump’s speech.
Waters will join other activists and elected officials on the program to analyze Trump’s first year in office and talk about “building black politics and the value of engagement across today’s socio-political landscape,” a BET spokesperson told BuzzFeed News.
You can watch Waters’s response on BET at 10pm US Eastern time, and also via BET’s streaming apps for Chromecast, Roku, and AppleTV.
Bernie Sanders
Sanders is planning to give his own response to Trump on social media shortly after the president’s address, according to his office, and will likely focus on the economy and problems of working-class Americans.
“Nobody knows exactly what [Trump] will be discussing [during the State of the Union], but I’m absolutely certain what he will NOT be talking about,” Sanders said in an email to supporters. “He will surely not be apologizing for the many lies he told American voters: how he promised to defend the interests of working people, but then sold them out to Wall Street and the billionaire class.”
Watch Sanders deliver his response live via his Facebook page.
Donna Edwards
Edward, a former Maryland congresswoman who is running for Prince George’s County executive, will deliver the Working Families Party’s response to the State of the Union.
Edwards’ response will be broadcast live at 11pm ET via the Working Families Facebook page following the official Democratic response.
Correction 1/30, 11pm EST: An earlier version of this post stated that Waters’s response would air Jan. 30.