R.I. Democrats sending a message to Trump via their speech guests

Feb. 27--PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Congressional Democrats from Rhode Island -- and beyond -- are bringing guests to President Trump's first speech to Congress on Tuesday who, in their eyes, represent groups most likely to be hurt by the president's controversial stance on immigration and Republicans' pledge to scrap Obamacare.

U.S. Sen. Jack Reed is bringing the president of the American College of Physicians, who happens to live in Wakefield. U.S. Rep. James Langevin is also bringing a doctor, but one who is also a leader in Rhode Island's Muslim community. And U.S. Rep. David Cicilline is bringing a disabilities advocate.

Trump reiterated his pledge to repeal and replace the Obamacare law in remarks at a black-tie dinner for the National Governors Association, in Washington this past weekend, according to CNBC.

"We're going to be speaking very specifically about a very complicated subject," Trump said of his Tuesday speech. "I think we have something that is really going to be excellent."

Langevin, D-R.I., is bringing Rhode Island Dr. Ehsun Mirza, a leader in Rhode Island's Muslim community who was originally from Pakistan. A critical care doctor at Kent Hospital, Dr. Mirza is a social activist who regularly travels internationally to provide relief services and medical care in rural areas of Nepal and Pakistan.

"As a candidate for President," Langevin said, Trump "made statements that were offensive to so many Americans, including women, members of the LGBTQ community, people of color, immigrants, and people of differing faiths. Once he assumed the highest office in the land, his first order of business was to close our borders to immigrants and refugees, particularly those from Muslim-majority countries."

"I am proud to call Dr. Mirza a friend, and I hope that his presence on February 28th will serve as a reminder to the President that true Americans come in every color and creed -- and not all are born here," Langevin said. "It's another reminder to the president that he's not the arbiter of patriotism."

Cicilline, D-R.I., is bringing Jeannine L. Chartier, a survivor of childhood polio, who is active in the disabilities-advocacy arena to Trump's first address to a joint session of Congress.

In other recent years, Cicilline invited the following people: a kindergarten teacher at William J. Underwood Elementary School in Newport, a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the mother of a 17-year-old Providence teen killed during a drive-by shooting in 1997 and the parents of U.S. Army Special Forces 1st Sgt. P. Andrew McKenna Jr., who was killed in Afghanistan.

In a press release announcing his decision to invite Chartier, Cicilline recalled that Trump, during the campaign, "was criticized for mocking Serge F. Kovaleski, an investigative reporter at The New York Times who has arthrogryposis. Despite clear video evidence, Trump has still refused to apologize or even acknowledge that he mocked Kovaleski's physical disability."

In a statement made public by Cicilline's office, Chartier said, "Like so many of my friends and colleagues, I have been shocked and frightened by how Donald Trump conducted himself as a candidate and how he has governed as President.

"As a woman with a disability, an artist and the director of an arts-education non-profit, I hope that my attendance will show the President that Americans like me will not just stay at home and let him undo all of the progress we have made in recent years. America is our country too, and we deserve a voice," she said.

"Chartier, a survivor of childhood polio, grew up in a working class Pawtucket family," according to Cicilline's office. "In 1986, she worked with the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts to found VSA arts Rhode Island, a statewide, nonprofit arts education organization providing programs by, with and for children and adults with disabilities to actively participate in the arts." She has been the executive and artistic director of VSA arts Rhode Island ever since.

Reed is bringing Dr. Nitin Damle of Wakefield -- the president of the American College of Physicians, which represents 145,000 internal medicine physicians nationally and internationally -- and a "strong supporter" of the Affordable Care Act (known as Obamacare).

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., is bringing Hilmy Bakri, president of the Board of Trustees of the Islamic School of Rhode Island.

The speech begins at 9 p.m. on Tuesday.

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