House Democrats call Al Green Trump speech protest ‘inappropriate’
Several House Democrats disapproved of their colleague Rep. Al Green’s (D-Texas) disruption during President Trump’s joint address to Congress on Tuesday.
Rep. George Latimer (D-N.Y.), speaking to Axios, said he felt the disruptions from Green and other Democrats were “inappropriate.”
“When a president — my president, your president — is speaking, we don’t interrupt, we don’t pull those stunts,” he told the outlet.
Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) said he didn’t “take that approach” himself and doesn’t condone the protest behavior.
Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.) also told Axios that he thought the outburst from his colleague was a "big mistake."
“I’m an old school traditional type guy, I think we should be treating the president with deference,” he said. “So I think it was inappropriate.”
The responses come after Green lashed out at Trump during the Tuesday address, after the president suggested the results of the 2024 election were a "mandate" from the American people. The Texas Democrat pushed back on the notion, leading Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to direct the sergeant-at-arms to "restore order" by removing Green from the chamber.
He later told reporters that he was protesting because Trump “has no mandate to cut Medicaid.”
The lawmaker added that his constituents are worried about the administration's sweeping cuts to the health care system.
Green wasn’t the only member protesting during the address. Some wore color-coordinated clothing, some held signs, and a few walked out of the chamber during the address.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) said he thought the Democratic protest was sad.
“A sad cavalcade of self owns and unhinged petulance. It only makes Trump look more presidential and restrained,” Fetterman wrote on social platform X. “We’re becoming the metaphorical car alarms that nobody pays attention to—and it may not be the winning message.”
While Democrats weren’t thrilled by Green’s protest, others went a step further, suggesting they were unhappy with the party’s overall messaging.
Golden told Axios that “if anyone is thinking that it was an effective strategy, they’re probably in an echo chamber.”
“My take is that the average American thought the optics were pretty bad,” he said.
Another House Democrat told the outlet that it would be a “compliment to call it a strategy” and pointed to photoshopped images of the signs Democrats held up.
Leaders had sought to keep disruptions to a minimum. Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) warned her colleagues to not protest in ways that would draw attention to themselves and instead keep the attention focused on Trump’s rhetoric.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) commended the majority of Democrats on Wednesday for their decorum during the address but stopped short of mentioning the protests.
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