Democrats voice regret on scattered responses to Trump’s speech

WASHINGTON — Democratic lawmakers Sunday expressed disappointment at their party’s uncoordinated response to President Donald Trump’s address to Congress last week, criticizing a colleague who staged a one-man protest during the speech by standing up and repeatedly shouting, “No mandate.”

The party’s leadership urged its members last week to stage a solemn and staid protest during Trump’s Tuesday speech, which was televised to nearly 37 million viewers. But Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, heckled the president and eventually was escorted out of the chamber.

The criticisms aimed at Green come as congressional Democrats debate how much to obstruct Trump’s agenda. With government funding set to expire after midnight Friday, Democrats must decide whether they will vote for legislation to avert a shutdown or refuse to do so while Trump is defunding and dismantling congressionally approved federal programs.

On Sunday news shows, five Democratic lawmakers, including two progressives, made roundabout criticisms of Green. They pointed to the backlash his protest generated from both Republican and nonpartisan voters, as well as the media attention it created, which they saw as a distraction to Democrats’ messaging against Trump’s policies.

“That was a strategic mistake as well as something that just is not appropriate for the decorum of the U.S. House of Representatives,” Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., said on CBS. Suozzi, whose district voted for Trump in 2024, was one of 10 Democrats who voted with Republicans to formally censure Green on Thursday. A censure is one of the highest forms of reprimand in the House.

Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said on ABC that Democrats’ “lack of coordinated response” was “a mistake” and that his party should have focused on how the Republican plan to slash government spending may lead to cuts on Medicaid.

“That, to me, is the winning case to make,” he said.

Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., who delivered her party’s response to Tuesday’s address, acknowledged on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Green’s outburst was the result of “so much frustration” with the Trump administration.

But Slotkin quickly added that her approach differs strongly from Green’s.

“We can’t just be against something,” said Slotkin, a moderate Democrat who won in November in a state that Trump carried. “We have to be for something.”

Those lawmakers’ comments largely echoed the views of the Democratic leadership, which had hoped that a soberly delivered response on pocketbook and health care issues would become the news instead of Green’s dissent.

When pressed about Green’s protest, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., the House minority leader, on Wednesday said that “the vast majority of Democrats showed restraint, listened to what the president had to say, and, of course, we strongly disagree.”

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the Senate minority leader, on Wednesday said that his party needed to focus on delivering messages around economic issues such as rising costs of food, housing and gas, and suggested that Green’s form of protest was not “the best way.”

Even Green’s progressive colleagues in Washington remained critical of him Sunday.

Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., said on CNN that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle needed to hold themselves to a higher standard of decorum. Kim said he did not approve of “that type of behavior” and compared Green’s response to that of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. Greene, a far-right firebrand, routinely interrupted former President Joe Biden’s speeches to Congress.

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., went further and told Fox News that Tuesday’s scattered response was “not a good look” for Democrats and the fallout from Green’s behavior was “a distraction” from Democrats’ economic messaging.

“You can vigorously disagree as I do but still respect some of the institutions of our country and some of our traditions,” Khanna said.

On Thursday, Green defended his behavior and made the case for Democrats to engage in “righteous indignation and righteous incivility” in the face of Trump’s language, tactics and attempts to circumvent Congress.

“There comes a time when you cannot allow the president’s incivility to take advantage of our civility,” he said on the House floor after the censure vote, adding, “It is time for us to take that stand.”

Green, who is Black, also put his protest in the context of the civil rights movement.

“I remember what it took to get me in this House — I’m not here because I’m so smart,” he said. “I’m here because people made great sacrifices, and it was incivility, it was disruption.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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