[WASHINGTONEXAMINER] President Trump will not receive a handshake from at least one senior House Democrat, the politician announced hours before Trump's first speech before a joint session of Congress.
"The president needs to work with all people and therefore I will listen to what he has to say today, but I will not greet him and shake his hand," New York Rep. Eliot Engel, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said during a brief speech on the House floor.
Engel, like several other politicians, has a long history of taking a seat on the aisle during State of the Union addresses; the positioning ensures that they are seen on television greeting the president as he enters and exits the joint session. But Engel intends the snub as a a rebuke of Trump's attacks on the media, lack of support for investigating the Russia-linked cyberattacks against the Democratic party during the 2016 elections, and other policy disagreements, he said.
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