House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) sent President Joe Biden an invitation to deliver a State of the Union Address.
McCarthy shared the invitation on Twitter.
“It is my solemn obligation to invite the president to speak before a Joint Session of Congress on February 7th so that he may fulfill his duty under the Constitution to report on the state of the union,” McCarthy tweeted.
The speaker said in a letter to Biden on Friday, “The American people sent us to Washington to deliver a new direction for the country, to find common ground, and to debate their priorities.”
He added, “In that spirit, it is my solemn obligation to invite you to speak before a Joint Session of Congress on Tuesday, February 7, 2023 so that you may fulfill your duty under the Constitution to report on the state of the union. Your remarks will inform our efforts to address the priorities of the American people.”
Read the letter below:
It is my solemn obligation to invite the president to speak before a Joint Session of Congress on February 7th so that he may fulfill his duty under the Constitution to report on the state of the union. pic.twitter.com/YBmzLxs3Iz
— Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) January 13, 2023
The invitation comes just one day after McCarthy commented on the classified documents found in the office Biden used following his vice presidency.
He suggested the president knew about the documents.
“I think if you call a lawyer to remove something for your office, he must have known ahead of time,” McCarthy said.
He added, “So, I think he has a lot of answers to the American public. The good thing about that is the American public has a Congress that can get the answers.”
McCarthy also commented on arguments that former President Donald Trump previously refused to cooperate with the National Archives to return classified documents.
“They knew the documents were there. They actually asked President Trump to put another lock on so they were locked in. You look at President Biden, he wasn’t president. He was vice president, held these in different locations right out in the open,” McCarthy explained.
Additionally, McCarthy claimed Biden’s handling of the documents makes Americans reluctant to trust the government.
“He knowingly knew this happened going into [the] election, going into interviews. This is what makes America not trust their government,” McCarthy said. “You cannot have one form of law because somebody philosophically has a different opinion than you. And you can’t use the Justice Department to go after people that are politically different, as well. It has to be equal across.”