U.S. males’s hockey staff to seem at Trump’s State of the Union with their gold medals, Johnson says

Washington — The gold-medal profitable U.S. males’s hockey staff is anticipated to seem at President Trump’s State of the Union tackle Tuesday night time, Home Speaker Mike Johnson mentioned forward of the speech.

In an unique interview with “CBS Night Information” anchor Tony Dokoupil, Johnson mentioned the staff “will likely be there with their gold medals.”

“Logistics had been a little bit of a problem final minute, however I believe we’ll get that completed,” Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, mentioned.

The staff visited the White Home forward of Mr. Trump’s speech, in response to social media posts from White Home aides. 

Dan Scavino, deputy chief of workers, mentioned Group USA was within the West Wing “with patriotic music blaring out of the Roosevelt Room,” and Margo Martin, particular assistant to the president, shared a photograph of the staff standing on the South Garden and a video of gamers strolling down the colonnade. 

Matthew Tkachuk, a ahead on the boys’s staff, shared a photograph to Instagram on Tuesday of him and different gamers standing outdoors a authorities aircraft. 

Mr. Trump invited the boys’s and ladies’s hockey groups to his speech after the boys defeated Canada 2-1 within the championship sport on the Winter Olympics Sunday in Milan to safe gold. The U.S. girls’s staff additionally beat their Canadian rivals 2-1 final week to win Olympic gold.

The ladies’s staff declined Mr. Trump’s invitation to attend the State of the Union, citing scheduling conflicts.

“Because of the timing and beforehand scheduled tutorial {and professional} commitments following the Video games, the athletes are unable to take part,” a USA Hockey spokesperson mentioned in an announcement. “They had been honored to be included and are grateful for the acknowledgment.”

The president spoke with the boys’s staff by cellphone shortly after the championship sport and mentioned he would ship a “navy aircraft or one thing” to Miami to select them up and produce them to Washington for the speech.

Mr. Trump’s invitation to the hockey groups set off some logistical scrambling. Johnson mentioned earlier Tuesday that whereas the State of the Union is a “very well-attended occasion” and the gallery within the Home chamber is “already full,” he would work out a method for the staff to attend.

“In some way, a way, we’ll squeeze within the hockey gamers tonight, and it will be an incredible second for America, and it truly is a logo to all of us that all of us play for America’s staff, and I hope all people will keep in mind that tonight,” he mentioned.

Watch extra of Home Speaker Mike Johnson’s unique interview with “CBS Night Information” anchor Tony Dokoupil tonight at 6:30 p.m. ET.  CBS News protection of the State of the Union tackle begins at 9 p.m. ET.