Columbus attorney Stacey Jackson scores prime seat for Trump speech

If you thought you saw high-profile Columbus criminal defense attorney Stacey Jackson in the gallery Tuesday night during President Donald Trump’s speech to Congress, you did.

Jackson, a local Republican, was just one row and a couple of seats over from the president’s wife, Melania. He appeared in a New York Times photo as the president was recognizing the wife of a slain law enforcement officer.

He got there thanks to a Georgia Democrat, U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop.

“I used Mrs. Bishop’s seat,” Jackson said Wednesday morning via phone from Washington. “She had business in Columbus, so I was allowed to go as Sanford’s guest in Mrs. Bishop’s place.”

The assigned seats are based on seniority and Bishop is in his 25^th year in Congress.

“I have managed to get a pretty good seat over the years,” Bishop said on Wednesday morning.

He and his wife, Columbus Municipal Court Clerk Vivian Bishop, have been mentors to Jackson over the years and he said he gladly provided Jackson the ticket when he asked.

Jackson is part of a national group called the Committee of 40, a mostly Republican group of minority business leaders from across the country who work on economic development and job issues and has been in Washington this week for meetings.

He got to see a piece of history as Trump addressed a joint session of Congress for the first time.

“I think it was a positive speech, obviously,” Jackson said. “The one thing that I took away from it was he is trying to fulfill his campaign promises and he is just a few weeks in office. He is implementing things like the wall on the southern border and job creation measures.”

Bishop said he thought the president struck a more conciliatory tone in his speech.

“But the devil is in the details,” Bishop said. “In terms of the Affordable Care Act, I think the president is playing fast and loose with the facts. It is complicated to repeal and replace because it is doing so much good for so many people.”

This story was originally published March 1, 2017 at 8:45 AM with the headline "Columbus attorney Stacey Jackson scores prime seat for Trump speech."