UPDATE (March 6, 2025 10:44 a.m. E.T.): The U.S. House voted 224-198 Thursday morning to censure Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, for interrupting Trump’s address to Congress Tuesday night.
Minutes after President Donald Trump began his speech to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, a defiant Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, stood up and quite literally stood firm in his discontent. He intentionally interrupted the president’s remarks and refused to be quieted as he voiced objections on behalf of veterans and seniors and in defense of Social Security. Trump was forced to stop his speech, and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., had the chamber’s sergeant at arms remove Green from the chamber.
Republicans are reportedly preparing a measure to censure the Houston Democrat on Thursday.
I did it from my heart, and I will suffer whatever the consequences are. But truthfully, I would do it again.
REP. AL GREEN, D-TEXAS
“If you get in the way, if you’re arrested, then you’ve got to be willing to suffer the consequences,” Green told reporters at the Capitol on Wednesday. “I did it from my heart, and I will suffer whatever the consequences are. But truthfully, I would do it again.”
As the country has watched Trump and his appointees reshape American government in less than 50 days, the demands that Democrats fight back have grown increasingly louder. The blistering pace with which Trump and his allies have leaned into implementing Project 2025 initially appeared to catch the Democrats’ party leadership flatfooted, and there has still been no inspiring moment of coordinated resistance.
Trump’s address to Congress was a big opportunity for Democrats to demonstrate that they understand the assignment; however, most of the Democrats and their leadership seemed largely unaligned and uncoordinated about how bold an opposition statement they actually wanted to make.
Strategically, Democrats could have capitalized on Green’s outburst sand removal by having member after member stand in his place, one after the other, to disrupt and potentially derail the president’s speech. The continued and repeated show of protest would have prevented Trump from finding his rhythm, most likely gotten him off script and shifted the focus away from the MAGA victory lap Trump had planned.
It would have been completely out of order and gone against the civility expected of members of Congress in such a setting, but that is precisely the point. If Democrats are seeking to engage and to inspire the imagination of their base, then they need to be able to make voters believe that they are willing to break a few parliamentarian rules of decorum and send the message that they won’t take the actions of this administration sitting down quietly.
If only there’d been a shared sense of courage and a boldly coordinated resistance effort from the rest of the Democrats. Something that served as a nod to the “good trouble” mantra that Democrats so readily invoke on behalf of the memory of the late Rep. John Lewis, the vaunted civil rights leader. There were roughly a dozen other members like Reps. Jasmine Crockett, Jamie Raskin, Maxwell Frost, Ayanna Pressley and others who chose to leave, but that was the extent of the Democratic Party’s resistance during the president’s speech, which was laden with lies and untruths.
What we saw from most Democrats were small placards resembling bingo paddles with messages that included “LIES” and “ELON STEALS.” Those optics were comically underwhelming.
Stalwart party leaders, such as leader emeritus Nancy Pelosi, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Sens. Chuck Schumer and Elizabeth Warren, spent most of the evening sitting listlessly without seeming to provide any real leadership or direction. It was a pathetic and embarrassing display, on a grand stage, and one that showed that perhaps Democrats aren’t actually as prepared for this fight as they claim to be. Certainly not when both Trump and the Republican Party he controls have shown no regard for the rules and notions of propriety that Democratic leadership seems so timid to approach, let alone cross.
What we saw from most Democrats were small placards resembling bingo paddles with messages that included “LIES” and “ELON STEALS.”
It’s easy to question the effectiveness of Green’s actions and dismiss his protest as largely performative. While it's fair to suggest that Democrats’ focus should be on substantive results for Americans, learning how to match those efforts with symbolism that inspires is the very real two-things-at-once task that Democrats will need to master to figure their way out of second place.
MAGA, for example, is as much marketing and messaging as it is ideology. Project 2025 is substantive policy. The two exist in the same space and further each other. Whether you agree with breaking the civility code for the purposes of making an optical appeal to your base doesn’t erase a belief that real strategy is necessary. What can’t be debated is that executing and implementing any plan is going to require a greater grit, a sharper nerve and a boldness that Dems largely failed to show when it counted.