Dems defy own leaders by relentlessly disrupting SOTU
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Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib heckle President Trump during the State of the Union at the U.S. Capitol on Feb. 24. Photo: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
Almost from the moment Trump entered the House chamber Tuesday night to deliver his State of the Union address, Democrats began to disrupt. It only deteriorated from there.
Why it matters: It's the new normal for presidential speeches to Congress, with Republicans heckling Democratic presidents and vice versa.
- Tuesday's disruptions came despite House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) repeatedly telling his members behind closed doors not to repeat the widespread disruptions that Trump faced last year during his speech to a joint session of Congress.
- Ahead of Tuesday's speech, Jeffries sternly dismissed Axios' reporting that protests were still likely to occur despite his instructions to the contrary.
- A Jeffries spokesperson did not immediately respond on Tuesday night to a request for comment.
What happened: As Trump entered the chamber, Rep. Al Green (D-Texas), who was notoriously escorted out of Trump's address last year for repeated heckling, mounted yet another protest.
- Green held up a sign reading "BLACK PEOPLE AREN'T APES" — a reference to a racist video Trump's account posted this month.
- Green refused to sit as Trump began his speech. Several Republicans verbally confronted Green, with a few trying to wrench the sign out of Green's hands.
- Eventually, Green was escorted out of the chamber by a House sergeant-at-arms staffer.
Zoom in: The broader heckling began in earnest shortly after Trump goaded Democrats by pointing out they didn't applaud a line about banning gender transition surgery for minors.
- "Look, nobody stands up. These people are crazy. I'm telling you, they're crazy," Trump said.
- Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) began to heckle, yelling "lies!" and — when Trump began to discuss immigration — "you're killing Americans."
- Tlaib and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), who were sitting next to each other, repeatedly heckled Trump, shouting over lines about immigration, crime and foreign policy.
Between the lines: At one point in the speech, Tlaib yelled at Trump, "How are those Epstein files? How are those Epstein files? Release them! ... Release the Epstein files!"
- At another, she and Omar loudly chanted, "You're killing Americans," in reference to the ICE shootings of Alex Pretti and Renée Good, the two American citizens killed in Minnesota by immigration enforcement officers.
They weren't the only ones doing the heckling. Rep. Gil Cisneros (D-Calif.) at one point yelled, "The oath is to protect and defend the Constitution!"
- Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) also heckled Trump repeatedly during sections of the speech covering crime and elections, at one point calling the president a "tyrant."
- Rep. Lois Frankel (D-Fla.) at one point stood up and shouted something inaudible at the president while pointing furiously at him, but her words were drowned out by applause from Republicans.
The bottom line: Democrats were explicitly told not to bring signs. That was a point of particular embarrassment and public ridicule last year.
- Yet Green wasn't even the only one to defy that order.
- At one point, Rep. Norma Torres (D-Calif.) held up a two-sided placard bearing the faces of Pretti and Good.
