(CNN) Democratic freshman Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts both announced on Tuesday that they will not attend President Donald Trump's State of the Union address.

Ocasio-Cortez, who has become a celebrated progressive icon and taken on an outsized profile for a first-term member of Congress, explained her decision in a tweet, saying that she did not want to "use my presence at a state ceremony to normalize Trump's lawless conduct & subversion of the Constitution."

"After much deliberation, I have decided that I will not use my presence at a state ceremony to normalize Trump's lawless conduct & subversion of the Constitution. None of this is normal, and I will not legitimize it. Consequently, I will not be attending the State of the Union," she wrote.

Pressley described her decision as a boycott and called the speech by the President, which will take place at the Capitol on Tuesday evening, as a "sham."

"On the eve of Senate Republicans covering up transgressions and spreading misinformation, I cannot in good conscience attend a sham State of the Union when I have seen firsthand the damage Donald J. Trump's rhetoric and policies have inflicted on those I love and those I represent," Pressley said in a statement.

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