State of the Union 2019: Who is attending as President Donald Trump's guest

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Wednesday, February 6, 2019
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The bitter partisanship of the past two years was on full display Tuesday just hours before President Donald Trump was to call for optimism and unity in his State of the Union address.

WASHINGTON -- The White House on Monday released the full list of people who will attend the State of the Union address as a guest of President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump.

- Debra Bissell, Heather Armstrong and Madison Armstrong, the daughter, granddaughter and great-granddaughter, respectively, of a Reno, Nevada, couple allegedly killed in their home last month by a person illegally in the U.S.

- Matthew Charles, a Tennessee man who was among the first prisoners released under the First Step criminal justice legislation Trump signed in December.

- Grace Eline, a 9-year-old brain cancer survivor.

- Ashley Evans, a former opioid addict nearing one year and one month of sobriety who hopes to be reunited with her daughter full-time.

- Elvin Hernandez, a special agent with the Homeland Security Department's human trafficking unit.

- Roy James, plant manager of a lumber facility in Vicksburg, Mississippi, that the White House says was reopened under provisions in Trump's tax cut legislation.

- Alice Marie Johnson, who served more than two decades of a life sentence without parole before Trump commuted her drug-related sentence last year

- Timothy Matson, a Pittsburgh police officer and SWAT team member who was shot multiple times while responding to the deadly October 2018 shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue. Eleven people were killed.

- Judah Samet, a Holocaust survivor and member of the Tree of Life Synagogue.

- Joshua Trump, a middle-school student who reportedly had been bullied for years because he shares the president's last name.

- Tom Wibberley, father of Navy seaman Craig Wibberley, who was killed in the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen.

Guests the White House invites typically serve to help put a face on policies the president will promote in the nationally televised address. Those invited this year represent Trump's opposition to illegal immigration, his push to halt human trafficking across the U.S.-Mexico border, efforts to stem the deadly opioid addiction epidemic and his economic policies.

White House officials said this year's guests "come from all different walks of life and each (have) an incredible story to tell," adding that they "represent the very best of America."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.