Democrats react to Trump's speech with skepticism
Democrats on Capitol Hill largely reacted to President Trump's speech Tuesday night before Congress with skepticism.
On social media , many California Democrats responded with criticism.
Senator Dianne Feinstein called the speech "…little more than campaign rhetoric and impossible to take seriously."
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi called it "…utterly disconnected from the cruel reality of his conduct."
California's new junior Senator Kamala Harris's responded , "We cannot disengage or retreat over the next four years. Fight on."
Southern California Congresswoman Maxine Waters skipped the speech entirely. Other Congressional Democrats staged a sit-in of sorts, avoiding any handshakes as the President walked down the aisle, and refraining from all but scattered applause for many of his policy statements.
President Trump's sweeping rhetoric was repeatedly met with stillness and silence from Democrats and there were other visible signs of dissent.
Some Democrats sported blue ribbons with the letters ACLU in support of the American Civil Liberties Union.
House minority leader Nancy Pelosi joined dozens of democratic congresswomen who wore white, a sign of protest symbolizing those who fought for women's right to vote.
"It reflects the suffragette movement and women who say we're not going back," said Representative Barbara Lee of Oakland.
Representative Lee and others in the congressional black caucus also wore black flowers. She said she was unimpressed by the president's more moderate tone Tuesday night.
"I hope my constituents understand while maybe his tone was a little different, look at the reality of his budget, look at the reality of his cabinet, millionaires, billionaires," Lee said.
At times, Democrats had tentative applause on topics of jobs, the importance of NATO, funding infrastructure projects, and supporting the sacrifices of military troops and police.
When the president repeated his pledge to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act and gestured to a young woman named Megan who was attending as a guest, Democrats quickly jumped on what they saw as a discrepancy.
"Under the health care plan or lack of plan in our country before Obamacare she would have been denied coverage because she would have been considered a pre-existing condition,'" said East Bay Congressman Eric Swalwell.
At a diner in Lexington, Kentucky, the state's former governor Steven Beshear, an Obama health care supporter, gave the Democrat's official response.
"When the president attacks the loyalty and credibility of our intelligence agencies, the court system, the military, the free press, individual Americans simply because he doesn't like what they say, he's eroding our democracy," Beshear said.