Livestream: President Trump Delivers State Of The Union Address

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump will deliver the State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress Tuesday night. The address to the nation was delayed due to the government shutdown as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, went back and forth with the president over the date of the speech. Pelosi sent Trump an invite for Feb. 5 once the government reopened. The speech begins at 9 p.m. eastern time.

The White House said Trump will call for optimism and unity in Tuesday's address. The speech comes after the longest government shutdown in U.S. history and as a new deadline of Feb.15 looms before funding for several federal agencies runs out once again. Trump is expected to use his address to outline his demands, which still include funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. He's teased the possibility of declaring a national emergency to secure wall funding if Congress doesn't act, though it appeared unlikely he would take that step Tuesday night.

On Tuesday morning, Trump tweeted that "tremendous numbers of people are coming up through Mexico in the hopes of flooding our Southern Border. We have sent additional military. We will build a Human Wall if necessary. If we had a real Wall, this would be a non-event!"

The president also lashed out at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat.

"I see Schumer is already criticizing my State of the Union speech, even though he hasn't seen it yet," Trump wrote on Twitter. Schumer responded to the tweet, saying the president must have missed a line from his speech that said, "Even more empty than his policy promises are President Trump's calls each year for unity."

Trump's guests for the State of the Union include Matthew Charles, the first prisoner released as a result of the First Step Act and Joshua Trump, a 6th grade student from Delaware who the White House says is bullied due to his last name. (You can see the full list of Trump's SOTU guests here.)

On the Democratic side, Stacey Abrams, who lost the race for Georgia governor to Republican Brian Kemp, will deliver the official party response to Trump's speech. Democratic lawmakers have also announced their own guests for the State of the Union, including Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, a New Jersey Democrat, who invited Victorina Morales, an undocumented immigrant, as her guest. According to The New York Times, Morales worked as a housekeeper as Trump's New Jersey golf course before being fired.

Reporting and writing from The Associated Press was used in this report.

Photo: The Dome of the US Capitol building is visible on the morning of the State of the Union, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019, in Washington. Photo by Andrew Harnik/Associated Press