President Trump returned fire on top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer on Tuesday, responding to a floor speech in which he characterized the state of the union as one that's in need of 'drastic repair' and new leadership.

Schumer gave Trump, who's beginning his third year in office, and his administration a 'failing' grade in biting remarks before the president's annual address to Congress.

He railed against Trump on Monday and again the next morning, predicting that the Republican president would make 'empty' promises in his 9 pm address.

'Perhaps even more empty than his policy promises are President Trump’s calls for unity each year,' he said.

Trump said in a tweet that Schumer has sour grapes because he's 'upset that he didn’t win the Senate' in November's mid-term elections.

President Trump returned fire on top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer on Tuesday, responding to a floor speech in which he characterized the state of the union as one that's in need of 'drastic repair' and new leadership

Schumer gave Trump, who's beginning his third year in office, and his administration a 'failing' grade in biting remarks before the president's annual address to Congress

Schumer railed against Trump on Monday and again the next morning, predicting that the Republican president would make 'empty' promises in his 9 pm address

Last year, Republicans Mike Pence and Paul Ryan flanked Trump. Republicans lost the House this year, and Nancy Pelosi will be sitting behind the president

Republicans added to their majority in the upper chamber. They wield 53 votes in the Senate compared to the 47 that the Democratic caucus commands.

The U.S. president needled Schumer over the victory on Tuesday as he slapped back at him in the hours before his evening speech, when nothing was on his public schedule.

'I see Schumer is already criticizing my State of the Union speech, even though he hasn’t seen it yet. He’s just upset that he didn’t win the Senate, after spending a fortune, like he thought he would. Too bad we weren’t given more credit for the Senate win by the media!' Trump said.

Schumer quickly responded on the same medium, telling Trump that he'd missed the point of his remarks.

'Thanks for watching my speech but you must have missed this line: “Even more empty than his policy promises are President Trump’s calls each year for unity”.'

In the floor speech Schumer said that Trump's call for comity, as the White House has put it, will be disingenuous at best.

'It seems every year the president wakes up and discovers the desire for unity on the morning of the State of the Union. Then the president spends the other 364 days of the year dividing us, and sowing a state of disunion,' Schumer charged.

He pointed to Trump's comments after the Charlottesville race riot in 2017, his attacks on federal courts, disparaging comments he's made about the media and insults he levies against his critics on Twitter on an almost-daily basis as examples of conduct that is counter to the claims the president's

'The blatant hypocrisy of this president calling for unity is that he is one of the chief reasons Americans feels so divided now,' Schumer alleged.

In the floor speech Schumer said that Trump's call for comity, as the White House has put it, will be disingenuous at best

The fellow New Yorker said that if the past is precedent, Trump 'will ignore the reality of his administration, the reality of our economy, the reality of our world, and instead weave a web of fiction' in his national address.

'The list of broken or empty promises is long. The gap between the president’s rhetoric and the state of the union and reality is cavernous. Every president uses the state of the union to set goals, but few have done it so cheaply and indifferently,' he contended.

Schumer made his point on Twitter, too. 'President Trump will report tonight on the state of our union. But, the state of the Trump economy is failing America's middle class. The state of the Trump healthcare system is failing American families. The state of the Trump Administration is chaos,' he said minutes before Trump criticized him.

If that weren't enough, he hammered the president in opening remarks at a news conference on Tuesday afternoon as Trump followed a long State of the Union tradition of lunching behind closed doors with national news anchors.

'The last two years, the White previewed addresses to Congress, and each time they emphasized unity, bipartisanship, reaching across the aisle,' Schumer asserted. 'And then next morning, President Trump forgot all that. We hope it won't happen again.

'Every year, the president wakes up and discovers that the desire for bipartisanship and unity is ephemeral. He doesn't rally feel it. He's told he's supposed to say it at the State of the Union, and then it's gone,' Schumer continued.

He told reporters, 'So if President Trump calls for a new era of bipartisanship, forgive me, we're going to wait and see if he's serious this time.'

The White House claims that 'unity' will be a major theme of Trump's speech tonight, despite his repeated attacks on Democrats for opposing his border security measures.

Claims that he'll strike a bipartisan note are being looked at skeptically, as such, particularly after Trump told journalists on Friday that he could use the speech to railroad Congress and give himself the authority and funds to build a wall by declaring a national emergency at the border.

Schumer also took aim on Monday on the floor at claims Trump is expected to make about the economy and his foreign policy record.

'Tomorrow, the president will say – predictably – that the state of our union is strong. But the truth is, the state of the Trump Economy is failing America’s middle class, the state of the Trump Healthcare system is failing American families, and the state of the Trump Administration is embroiled in chaos and incompetence,' Schumer said.

He added, 'The state of the president’s foreign policy is incoherent, inconsistent, cynical in the extreme, and has undermined American power and our national interest.'

Schumer lodged his protest on the floor of the Senate. Other lawmakers will voice theirs through boycotts.

At least four Democratic lawmakers, including Georgia Congressman John Lewis, have said they will not be in attendance.

Most Democrats are expected to attend, and they are bringing guests whose life stories back up policy principles they'd like to highlight.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has invited to transgender soldiers, and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is bringing one of the Democratic activists who confronted former Sen. Jeff Flake in an elevator about sex assault allegations levied at judge Brett Kavanaugh.



