Lawrence Bryant/Reuters
Stacey Abrams, the former Democratic candidate for Georgia governor, responded to President Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday night by calling the partial government shutdown that ended last month a “disgrace” he orchestrated. “Just a few weeks ago, I joined volunteers to distribute meals to furloughed federal workers. They waited in line for a box of food and a sliver of hope since they hadn’t received a paycheck in weeks,” she said. “Making their livelihoods a pawn for political games is a disgrace. The shutdown was a stunt engineered by the president of the United States, one that defied every tenet of fairness and abandoned not just our people—but our values.” President Trump did not mention the shutdown that caused him to postpone his State of the Union address on Tuesday night—but he did make the case for a border wall by referencing acts of violence along the Mexican border.