President Biden’s State of the Union address on Tuesday will feature a guest list that includes the man who disarmed a gunman who fatally shot 11 people in Monterey Park last month.
Brandon Tsay was called a hero by authorities for disarming the elderly gunman who riddled a dance studio with bullets during a celebration of the Lunar New Year in the community east of Los Angeles. His actions were praised for preventing further bloodshed when the gunman targeted a second location.
He was invited by U.S. Rep. Judy Chu, a Democrat from California.
Biden is expected to use the speech, which is delivered during a joint session of Congress, as an unofficial start to the 2024 presidential campaign season, laying out his policy priorities.
The guest list also includes a former Afghan ambassador and the family of Tyre Nichols, who was fatally beaten by Memphis police last month.
Nichols’ mother, RowVaughn Wells and his stepfather, Rodney Wells, accepted an invitation earlier this week from the Congressional Black Caucus chairman, Rep. Steven Horsford, a Democrat.
Roya Rahmani was Afghanistan’s first female ambassador here, serving in the post from December 2018 until July 2021. The U.S. completed the withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan in August 2021 after a 20-year war.
House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul invited Rahmani as his guest. McCaul, a Republican, said he hoped her presence “will send a signal to the women of Afghanistan that they have not been forgotten.”
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington, editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
– Reuters