Democrats are frustrated by the lawmakers from their own party who protested at President Donald Trump’s joint Congressional address, branding it “very silly and unserious.”
Lawmakers made their disdain for Trump known during his 100-minute address as they heckled, booed and held up signs in protest throughout the speech. Some also wore pink to protest how Trump’s policies have negatively impacted American women.
One Democratic strategist said the protest was “very silly, and unserious, but I can’t help but feel some level of empathy for them,” they told Politico anonymously. “I’m sure they feel like they have to do something, anything, [but] that wasn’t it.”
Many Democrats in the House held up signs that read “false,” “that’s a lie,” “Musk lies” and “save Medicaid” as Trump spoke.
Symone Sanders Townsend, a former Joe Biden spokesperson, who was commentating on X throughout the speech, noted that the signs “are not landing.”
“It is giving bingo! Sigh,” the MSNBC host said. “They are not taking back the house with these visuals.” Sanders Townsend later posted that “Democratic leadership did not do their members any favors by stifling their desires to speak out.”
Michigan State Sen. Mallory McMcMorrow told Politico that voters are “sick and tired of performative nonsense.”
“They don’t want to see their elected officials try to be cute or clever. People are anxious and scared and angry and energized and want to see substance and clear direction,” McMorrow, who is weighing a bid to replace Sen. Gary Peters, said.
Late night show host Stephen Colbert also lashed out at Democrats in his opening monologue Tuesday night. He made a sign of his own that said: “Try doing something.”
Texas representative Al Green was escorted from the chamber by the Sergeant at Arms, after he stood up and repeatedly shouted, “you have no mandate” to cut Medicaid, shortly after Trump began his remarks.
A contingent of House Democrats later walked out on Trump’s first joint address in protest.
Among them was Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett, who said she would “step up the fight and let America know Democrats won’t back down.”
After the speech was over, many Democrats took to their own social media platforms to rail against Trump.
“Tonight, President Trump rattled off broken promise after broken promise and lie after lie,” Sen. Chuck Schumer, pictured looking extremely unimpressed in the chamber, said in a post on X. “Americans will look at what he has done, not what he says, and see the destruction he’s beginning to wreak on you, your family, and our country.”
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg appeared on Colbert’s show to deliver his response to the speech.
“The biggest issue on people’s minds — the affordability of everyday life — is not something that got more than a few seconds of mention in his speech,” he told Colbert. “If eggs are $10 and you’re a billionaire, that’s a little disturbance for you, but not for most people,” he said.
