Before the speech of President Donald Trump before Congress, some Democratic lawmakers planned to interrupt the president's speech at the joint session of the legislative body. A few of them protested, while others held signs condemning Trump's policies. But a representative from Texas invoked the president's call and interrupted his speech, expressing sharp criticism.
The Democratic representative El Green was excluded from the chamber following his repeated interruptions during the president's speech. The Speaker of the House, Republican Mike Johnson from Louisiana, indicated he would exclude Green after several warnings, and several Democratic representatives expressed solidarity with their colleague, preferring to leave the chamber with him.
Emerging from the general session, Green told reporters: "There are people who are very disadvantaged, they are poor and they only have Medicaid when it comes to medical care, and I want the president to notice that his budget proposes large cuts to the program." He added: "Medicaid needs to be preserved and protected, we need to raise the threshold for social security, as there is danger that (Medicaid) suffers... This program is a public safety net, which saves people in my chosen district."
Given this complexity, speaking time for representatives was limited, as appetite for protests was less compared to the first term of the Trump presidency. Each new president faced shouts and protests from opposition politicians during their first speech before Congress. Biden, returning for support in 2023, was repeatedly compelled to listen to protests from Republicans, which led to the speaker of the House at that time, Kevin McCarthy, being forced to silence them, and in the following year, Biden's speech before Congress was interrupted by Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert, screaming "build the wall", according to NBC News. Trump also did not escape protests during his first speech before Congress. During his speech about the state of the union in 2018, his remarks on immigration prompted "shouts of outrage" from some Democrats, according to NBC News.
Back in the past, Congressman Joe Wilson interrupted President Barack Obama's speech in 2009 during a joint session of Congress. At that time, when Obama was discussing immigration reform, Wilson, a Republican from South Carolina, shouted: "You lie." In 2005, President George W. Bush was faced with protests from some Democrats as he pushed for social security reform, and according to CNN commentator Bill Schneider at that moment, he noted: "This was unusual, I have certainly not heard of this at such a level before, and it was clear that the Democrats raised screams, uttered howls of rejection when the president spoke about the crisis in social security."
Although this outburst in 2005 was considered unusual, protests during the president's speech before Congress have a much longer history. In 1975, President Gerald Ford faced protests from Democratic opponents during his speech before lawmakers in discussions about a $722 million war aid package to Southeast Asia, since the Democrats were pushing for an end to the war.
At the beginning of last month, Democratic Congressman El Green announced plans to introduce a resolution on the impeachment of President Donald Trump due to his aggressive foreign policy, stating: "Unfairness in any place represents a threat to fairness everywhere," and announced the start of a movement for impeachment. The Texas Democrat has repeatedly attempted to conduct procedural maneuvers to bypass the leadership of the House and push committees. At this moment, among Democrats there is no such large desire to impeach Trump.
Answering a question about Green's initiative, Democrat from California Beto O'Rourke stated that this action does not appear to be a priority for the party.
