Shortly after taking office, Donald Trump held a joint session of Congress address, and it turned into a complete debacle.
Democrats were screaming, and some of them walked out, creating a complete spectacle of the event.
Trump’s first State of the Union address in his second term is now on the docket, and Democrat leadership is reportedly trying to quash the rebellion to avoid the negative media attention received from Trump’s 2025 speech.
It was no surprise to see Reps. Al Green (D-TX) and Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) try to generate some headlines during Trump’s address.
Green stood up in the middle of the speech and started screaming, eventually being led out of the chamber.
Crockett also created a spectacle, walking out, then grabbing every microphone she could find to explain how she was taking a stance against the bad orange man.
Afterward, she stated, "We occupied our seats as long as we wanted to and then we got out. We are going to fight him tooth and nail and we are going to combat all the lies and we are going to continue to serve the people that even went out and elected him to their own dismay."
I have zero issue with members of Congress who do not go to the SOTU address as long as they don’t whine about the other party not showing up when their guy is addressing the nation.
This time around, as usual, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) has announced that she will not be attending.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) is among those who will be boycotting, stating, “Next week, Trump will deliver his State of the Union address. I won’t be there. Trump is marching America towards fascism, and I refuse to normalize his shredding of our Constitution & democracy. This cannot be business as usual.”
There are about a dozen Democrats who have announced the boycott so far, to which White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson responded, "It’s not a surprise that they refuse to celebrate and honor the Americans who have benefitted from the commonsense policies Republicans have governed with.”
Tradition for the opposing party is that you sit in your seat, silent, don’t clap, then rip the president after the speech in the media. As noted above, that is not what happened last time.
It cost the Democrats in terms of public perception, and now Democrat leadership is hoping to quash that behavior so the party does not take a hit again, according to a report in The Hill.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) told the media, “The two options that are in front of us in our House [are] to either attend with silent defiance or to not attend and send a message to Donald Trump in that fashion, which will include participation in a variety of different alternate programming that is going to take place in and around the Capitol complex.”
Something tells me his orders will not be followed by firebrands like Crockett, who needs the headlines for her Senate run. It should make for some great TV because you know Trump will not be afraid to fire back in real time.
