Rank-and-file Democrats are openly shrugging off House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's directive to use President Trump's address to Congress to showcase the Democratic resistance.

Why it matters: It's a question that has repeatedly splintered party members when faced with inflammatory speeches on Capitol Hill: Should they show up and protest from within, or boycott and counterprogram on the outside?

• Jeffries and Schumer want members to attend Tuesday's speech and bring special guests who have been negatively affected by the administration.
• "We ask that House Democrats attending the Joint Address bring a guest who has been harmed by the Trump administration's early actions," the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee told congressional offices in a memo obtained by us.

But Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told us he is leaning against attending the speech because "when Trump does it, it's not a serious event."

• "We want to make [clear] that things are not business as usual. Things are falling apart," said Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.), a DPCC co-chair who is undecided on attending.

What we're hearing: Other lawmakers told us they will take their spouses, as is common.

• Rep. Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.), Jeffries' top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, said he committed weeks ago to give his plus-one to a Republican colleague.
• "I hadn't really given much thought to bringing someone, partly out of my frustration with the president," Morelle told us.

By the numbers: Nearly a dozen House and Senate Democrats told us they are leaning against attending or undecided.

• "As of now, I don't have any reason to go," said Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas). "I know what he's going to say — he's going to get up there, he's going to lie, he's going to praise [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and all kinds of other nonsense."
• Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) all declined to commit to attending.
• So did Reps. Don Beyer (D-Va.), Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) and Mark DeSaulnier (D-Calif.).

The other side: "I know that many of my colleagues are eager to sit in and express our profound opposition to everything going on," said Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.).

• "It is far better to push back inside the room, I think, than outside."

Share this story

— Andrew Solender, Hans Nichols and Stephen Neukam

Trump's extraordinary Oval Office exchange with Volodymyr Zelensky today underscores the dramatic shift across Washington since the Ukrainian president's two addresses to Congress in 2022.

The big picture: Zelensky was greeted with an emotional outpouring of bipartisan solidarity when he spoke virtually to congressional members in March 2022 and again in person in December of that year.

• Fast-forward three years. There were no high-profile meetings between Zelensky — who huddled with House Speaker Mike Johnson as recently as July — and congressional leaders — let alone plans for another major speech.

And the vibe with Trump was downright acrimonious, devolving into a televised shouting match that led to Zelensky's abrupt departure from the White House.

• Trump proclaimed the Ukrainian president could "come back when he is ready for peace."

Joint addresses to Congress are usually reserved for foreign allies. Here's a look back at who has snagged an invite to speak to lawmakers over the past decade:

— Kathleen Hunter and Hans Nichols

Go deeper: Trump's "disaster" Zelensky meeting stuns GOP hawks