By Trevor Hunnicutt
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Some put on white in protection of reproductive rights. One wearing crimson to characterize Washington's want to be a state. And former consultant George Santos sports activities a shocking collar.
Lawmakers and their friends used trend to make a press release Tuesday as Joe Biden's State of the Union handle gives not solely the president, but additionally his viewers, his most necessary platform of the yr.
Yellow and blue had been the selection of some legislators, Ukraine's bicolor. Home Republicans have delayed laws that features $60 billion in help for Ukraine for months, a delay that has contributed to some setbacks for kyiv on the battlefield.
Santos, who was expelled from Congress after a dizzying sequence of lies about his biography led to his indictment on fraud expenses, appeared on the speech sporting a rhinestone-embellished collar, a black jacket and white pants.
He additionally selected a extra refined contact favored by a number of lawmakers: a pin.
His and the one worn by different Republican lawmakers was crimson and in tribute to Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing scholar from Georgia who was allegedly murdered final month by an undocumented immigrant who had been launched on parole.
Republicans, who blame Biden and his administration's border insurance policies for American deaths by the hands of unlawful immigrants, have seized on the case.
Firebrand's U.S. consultant, Marjorie Taylor Greene, wore a T-shirt that mentioned “Say His Identify,” one other reference to Riley. She offered Biden with a Riley pin, which he accepted.
Rep. Troy Nehls wore a T-shirt emblazoned with Trump's face and the phrases “by no means surrender.”
Throughout the aisle, a handful of Democratic U.S. lawmakers, together with Reps. Greg Casar and Maxwell Frost, confirmed their assist for a break within the struggle in Gaza Thursday night time by sporting crimson and white lapel pins that learn “STOP THE FIRE”.
“Successful With out Warfare,” a community of activists and organizations advocating for a extra peaceable U.S. overseas coverage, mentioned earlier than the speech that about 15 workplaces had requested the pins however didn’t know what number of members of Congress would put on them within the speech. .
Representatives Cori Bush and Rashida Tlaib additionally wore Palestinian keffiyeh scarves. Tlaib wore watermelon earrings, a present of assist for the Palestinian trigger.
Former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was critically injured in a capturing in 2011, wore orange to represent the tip of gun violence.
Members of the Democratic ladies's group put on white fits with badges that say “Combating for Reproductive Freedom” to emphasise their assist for reproductive rights.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt, Patricia Zengerle, Gabriella Borter; Modifying by Heather Timmons and Stephen Coates)