Massachusetts Rep. Joe Kennedy III, seen as a rising political star with a famous last name, delivered the Democratic response to President Trump's State of the Union.
Kennedy said his speech would be "guided by a simple belief that equality and economic dignity should be afforded to every American." To drive home the message, he spoke from Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School in the former textile hub of Fall River, Massachusetts.
Watch the video below, and read the annotated transcript and fact-checking from NPR's newsroom.
In announcing their decision to have Kennedy, 37, deliver the speech, Democratic leaders in Congress called him a "relentless fighter for working Americans." He was elected to the House in 2012.
Longtime Congressman Richard Neal of Springfield, Massachusetts, told NEPR he hadn't spoken directly to Kennedy about his speech, but said Democrats talked about it at their Tuesday morning meeting.
"Everybody's fairly optimistic it's going to be a fine speech," Neal said.
Kennedy is the grandson of the late Robert Kennedy, the former U.S. attorney general and New York senator who was assassinated in 1968. He is also the great nephew of both the late Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy and the late president John F. Kennedy.
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This report includes information from NPR and The Associated Press.
