This State of the Union showed the best and worst of our times before a word was uttered

We begin at 2pm PST, hours before the State of the Union…

Yet another Epstein Files bombshell dropped on Tuesday, just hours before Donald Trump was set to deliver a State of the Union Address we already knew would be a test of human endurance.

Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), the Ranking Member of the House Oversight Committee, revealed the (not at all) shocking news that the Department of Justice has been (hold on to something sturdy, Dear Reader!) covering up information from the Epstein Files that makes Donald Trump look hella guilty. As tweeted by Oversight Democrats:

“For the last few weeks, Oversight Democrats have been investigating the FBI’s handling of allegations from 2019 of sexual assault on a minor made against President Donald Trump by a survivor.

“Oversight Democrats can confirm that the DOJ appears to have illegally withheld FBI interviews with this survivor.

“Covering up direct evidence of a potential assault by the President of the United States is the most serious possible crime in this White House cover-up.”

Congressional Democrats should have demanded that the State of the Union be canceled. Or at least postponed, until well after all of these traitors have been removed from our government. Instead, there was a collective Twitter shrug, like there is with everything about Trump, even though everything about him would have ended anyone else a long, long time ago.

Ahead of the speech, Trump’s biggest supporters were gearing up, which was literally true of Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY, via the MAGA Mean Girl Academy at Trump University), who shared a photo of herself wearing a hoodie sold by MAGA Grifter Nick “Baby Teeth” Shirley.

Creepy.

And then there was Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), the performative attention-seeking MAGA Munchausen’s case. Mace is aware the Epstein Files exist, but she’s doing that willfully obtuse Russian propaganda thing where she keeps tweeting about anyone connected to Epstein who isn’t named Donald Trump. And now she’s also courting favor with Qrazy QAnon Qreater Mike Flynn.

Nancy loves all the worst people who have (not) coincidentally blocked me on Twitter.

Conversely, a lot of Democrats were not just boycotting SOTU, they were offering so many counter-programming options that Trump’s ratings should really prove the worst in televised history. Let’s face it, that’s all he cares about anyway.

My Oregon Democratic delegation made me proud because none of them went. Instead of attending Trump’s Slurring Liefest, Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley hosted a “Fate of the Union” Town Hall.

Rep. Maxine Dexter (D-OR), the Democrat from the third District, sat out the speech, sending Epstein survivor Lisa Phillips in her place.

If only I could somehow have arranged for Lisa to sit next to Mace.

There was yet another delegation from my state in D.C., to protest Trump’s (definitely slurred) speech, and they made MAGA hopping mad.

Seriously, that photo (h)op set off some tiny minds on my Instagram, but that just shows the collective IQ point shared by the MAGA cult just went down yet again.

Democratic women also sent a message to the Epstein survivors in the hours before their abuser’s bestie shuffled into the chambers.

In my final pre-SOTU prediction, I went ahead and posited that aside from going insanely off-script from whatever Sieg Hiel-ery was written by Kapo Nosferatu Stephen Miller, Trump’s State of Delusion Address would include a lot of slurs — of his words as well as any marginalized communities he can scapegoat. While defamating his perceived enemies in a Not-Anyone’s-Idea-Of-A-Greatest-Hits Collection, he would be unsteady on his swollen ankles. Hi narcissism wouldn’t allow him to be seen sipping water, lest anyone focus on his tiny hands, so his voice would grow weaker and raspier. Maybe he’d fall asleep standing up again! One could only hope.

We resume at 7:00 pm PST. (No, it’s not over …)

WOW, that was bad.

Like, epically and historically bad.

Make the entire planet cringe as one entity bad.

And I’m just talking about his entrance.

All he’ll care about are the embarrassing screenshots and historically low ratings thanks to all the alt-SOTUs. Oh man, I can’t wait until he gets his phone back and sees all of the hair tweets. Someone on the staff is definitely getting fired tomorrow!

I’m going to enjoy this petty moment, thanks.

But seriously, how does anyone look at him and see leadership?

I only see a giant bucket of whatever he downloads into his diaper. I watched his lies with the sound off and the captions on, which was entertaining, but ultimately not sustainable because these people are monsters. However, I did manage to capture a couple of perfect moments before the lying proper began.

In one, Justice Brett Kavanaugh looked … not pleased to be there. In another…

*giggles like a 6th grader*

Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger will get dragged for giving the Democratic response, but that’s only because MAGA knows she’s right. They hate the truth about Trump — including how those pesky tariffs actually cost them all $1,700 each. But since they can’t possibly admit they were wrong, we’ll continue to get gaslighting of the highest order from Cult 47.

The only fallout from the speech will be more punditry, with a weak attempt from the MAGA cult to reframe a “newly energized” (puhleeze) Trump. Democrats need to keep the focus on Epstein and make sure that this is Trump’s last SOTU.

• Tara Dublin is a political writer/commentator based in Portland, OR, who has been blocked by Donald Trump on Twitter since August 2015 and can occasionally be heard as a fill-in host on SiriusXM Progress. She is also the author of The Sound of Settling, a rock ‘n’ roll love story available at taradublinrocks.com