PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP called investigations into his administration “ridiculous partisan” during his State of the Union address to Congress on Tuesday. At right, Speaker Nancy Pelosi reacts. Vice President Mike Pence is at left (CNN).

In the State of the Union message he delivered Tuesday to a joint session of Congress, President Donald Trump made an appeal for unity and an end to political division, but denounced the many investigations into his administration.

“If there is going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be war and investigation,” he said.  Citing the strong economy and a recent spike in new hiring, he said “An economic miracle is taking place in the United States and the only thing that can stop it are foolish wars, politics or ridiculous partisan investigations.”

At that remark, Republican members of Congress applauded – some rising – while Democrats sat in silence.

The president also spoke of passing a bill to avoid another shutdown of the federal government, tying it to increased border security, including a physical barrier – “a smart, strategic see-through steel barrier” –along the nation’s southwest border with Mexico.  The deadline for an agreement on funding the government is Feb. 15.

He also spoke of working on a new trade deal with China, a battle against childhood cancer and a planned meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Feb. 27 and 28 in Vietnam.

Abrams blasted Trump in Democratic response

Stacey Abrams, who ran unsuccessfully for governor of Georgia in November, made the Democratic response to President Trump’s State of the Union address and called the partial 35-day partial shutdown of the federal government a “stunt engineered by the president of the United States, one that defied every tenet of fairness and abandoned not just our people – but our values.”

Abrams, seeking to become the first African American woman elected to a governorship, lost narrowly to Republican Brian Kemp. On Tuesday she spoke about alleged voter suppression in her state.